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WOMAN'S 

doi\fidei)tikl SdYi^ef 



ON THE 



HEALTH AND DISEASES OF WOMEN. 



KNOW THYSELF! 



ON WHICH 



Health, Happiness, and Life Depend ! 

BT 

HORACE KNAPP, M.D. 









PEOVIDENCE, E.I. 
1873. * 



NN" 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1873, by 

HORACE KSTAPP, M. D., 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

It is a lamentable fact that most women are 
more or less invalids. It is to be regretted, not 
only on their account, because of their sufferings ; 
but because their diseases unfit them for wives 
and mothers and the duties of home, render them 
incapable of making their homes pleasant and 
happy, and unfits them for the pleasures and hap- 
piness of life. 

Women are sick so much, they seem to think 
that pains, sickness, and sufferings are their lot, 
the penalty for being women ; consequently, they 
try to bear them as best they can, with Christian 
fortitude. 

There is nothing else like disease that so dis- 
courages wives, and so paralyzes the energy and 
discourages their husbands, as a sick wife. These 
facts, and the suffering of women, make their 
health the first and most important thing of life ; 
and yet, their health receives the least thought and 
care of anything. 

Even when they are sick, they seldom consult 
a physician so long as they can keep about the 



4 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

house, when, as a general thing, it is too late to 
save them from a premature grave. 

They may live a few months in physical suffer- 
ing and mental misery, after it is too late to cure 
them. 

What reasonable excuse, or moral right, have 
women to delay so important a matter as being 
restored to health, and saving their lives ? Their 
first duty is to take care of their health and lives, 
for the neglect of which God will hold them 
responsible. They should attend to the first 
symptoms of disease, which prevents suffering, and 
saves expense, health, and life. 

There is no natural cause why women should be 
more sickly than men. God has not been partial 
with health — the greatest earthly blessing. It is 
within the reach of all, and can be had by simply 
obeying the laws of health, which all may do. No 
class of people can monopolize health. It may 
be enjoyed by the poor as well as by the rich. 

While there are no naticral causes why women 
are so sickly, there are many good reasons for it. 

First. They do not dress so warmly in cold 
weather, especially their arms, limbs, and feet, as 
men do. And until they do, they can never have 
health, and enjoy in full the pleasures of life, and 
fulfil their mission in life. 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps speaks as follows : on, 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 



"WHY WOMEN ARE WEAK. 

"When we consider what intricate system of 
defiance to all known physiological laws a woman's 
dress has become ; the tender age at which this 
defiance begins, and the relentless pressure of it 
upon the formative and recuperative energies of 
the constitution • the murderous thinness and 
scantiness of her under-dress ; the effect of the 
absence of flannels, and the custom of baring 
the neck and arms, upon the sensitive tissues of 
the lungs and heart ; the check to all even circula- 
tion of the blood and healthy condition of the skin 
inflicted by the imperfect and compressed covering 
of her feet and hands ; the unhealthy heat of the 
head, consequent on the manner in which custom 
requires her to collect her hair into a wad of pad- 
ding at the base of the brain ; the clasp of a rack 
of steel and whalebone about all the vital organs 
of the body; the straight-jacket snap with which 
the seams of her dress meet about her shoulders, 
arms, and chest ; the results inevitable upon making 
the hips the pivot upon which her heavy clothing 
is hung, and the fulcrum upon which all the 
motion of her body must swing in walking, — if, 
indeed, we apply that term to the infantile toddle 
with which women are driven to get about the 
world ; above all, the unreasonable and cruel cus- 
tom which compels her to drop heavy skirts about 



6 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

her lower limbs and feet, thus endangering her life 
on all occasions, her health on any but a dry sum- 
mer day, and her self-reliance forever ; when we 
consider the extent to which the common occupa- 
tions of a woman deprive her of the open air, of 
exercise, of change of scene, of acquaintance with 
the world ; of the extent to which they are adapted 
to produce all the varieties of sedentary disease ; 
when we consider the unlimited influence of the 
mind upon the body, of happiness upon health, 
and the brooding morbidness and acute suffering 
which the lives of women so largely induce in 
them, shall we find it a matter of surprise that 
women as a race are diseased and feeble, and are 
bestowing upon the world a future legacy of dis- 
eased and feeble children? Shall we wrap this 
ruined creature away in a shawl to die, and say, 
with sorrowful assurance : Behold woman ' as God 
made her ' ? 

" Woman as God made her ! As man and the 
devil and her own cowardice have made her ! God 
never made such women as are cradling the next 
generation in this land to-day. Side by side with 
6 female illiteracy/ female feebleness is running a 
race among us. Neglected brains and tortured 
bodies are working their own way upon our actual 
and possible mothers. Thoughtful physicians are 
perplexed and alarmed. We are a beautiful, use- 
ful, and elevated order of animals ; the world has 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. *] 

done the right thing by us ; it has stalled and fed 
us ; it has petted and praised us ; who can com- 
plain ?" 

The following from the " Waverley Magazine," on 
the dress of women, has the true ring : — 

"Woman, while striving to reach a broader 
plane which places the sex on a level with man, 
yet fails to display good taste and sense in the one 
province strictly under her management — her 
own dress. We are told that dress is an index of 
character ; in that case, how few minds among the 
fairer portion of our community are properly bal- 
anced ! Grace, propriety, delicacy, simplicity, fit- 
ness, and proportion are each and all outraged in 
the fashions now in vogue. The belle of the time 
is one panorama of awful surprises from top to toe. 
Her clothes characterize her. She never charac- 
terizes her clothes. She is upholstered, not orna- 
mented. She is bundled, not draped. She is 
puckered, not folded. She struts ; she does not 
sweep. She has not one of the attributes of 
Nature nor of proper art. She neither soothes the 
eye like a flower, nor pleases it like a picture. 
She wearies it like a kaleidoscope. She is a 
meaningless dazzle of broken effects. Custom 
has reconciled us to these barbarous styles in 
dress, but fifty years hence they will seem to our 
children as uncultivated as the nose-rings of the 
Hottentots now seem to us. The dictum of our 



8 THE QrSEASES OF WOMEN, 

great-grandchildren upon, for instance, what has 
been termed the kangaroo style of dress, will con- 
tain new and severer elements of criticism than 
any which go to form our judgment upon fashions 
which repel us only because they are out of date. 
How endless our ingenuity in sowing the seeds of 
this criticism ! If we have a pretty foot, we wear 
our heels beneath our insteps, and cripple it. If 
we have abundant hair, we cover it with the hair of 
some uncleanly dead grisette, or twine with it an 
Indian weed which is namelessly horrible, and ex- 
, poses the wearer to nameless horrors. If we have 
a pretty dress, we cut it up, we slash it off, we 
twist it hither, we snip it yon, we bolster it here, 
we stuff it there, we mutilate it everywhere. We 
pay no attention to artistic effect, to harmony of 
any sort ; and yet the thought expended on her 
dress by the modern belle is equal to that be- 
stowed by an author on his writings. If ( exertion 
of intellect' stands censor on the beauty of our 
costume, Heaven save the mark!" 

Secondly. The hard work of women brings on 
many diseases, and breaks down their constitution, . 
and sends them to an untimely grave. They not 
only work too hard, but too many hours in a day. 
They work nearly double the hours that men do, 
who are always clamoring for less hours of work 
and more pay. And yet most husbands consider 
them troublesome family dependences, especially 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. Q 

when they ask for money to go shopping with. 
Most men consider that their wives ask favors, 
instead of their rights, when they ask for money. 
Whereas, they only ask for their God-given rights, 
f#r money due them for a life of hard labor. And 
it is time that this right was acknowledged and 
conceded, both by public opinion and the laws of 
the land. 

As things are now, the relation- of many hus- 
baids and wives, is too much that of master and 
sla-e, which is one of the most degrading things 
on earth. And it makes man more or less a 
tyrmt, and woman a trembling menial, hanging 
upcn the smiles and frowns of her would-be lord, 
whose will is her destiny. This destroys her 
womanhood, grace, and noble bearing, and all the 
pleasures of home and society. 

Nkhing else calls louder for a reform than in 
the libor and pay of women. Justice and humanity 
dem^id that the mass of married women, who do 
the w?rk for their families, and young women, who 
depeitl on their daily labor for support, work less 
and rave more pay. And justice requires that 
wives share equally with their husbands in the 
money§he helps earn and save ; and that she has 
the rig/t to invest it in her own name, and use it 
as she leases, as does her husband. If this was 
the law tf the land, as it should be, many families 



10 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

would be living in comfort, if not in luxury, who aie 
now living in poverty and misery. 

The fact is, too many men estimate their wives, 
as formerly did the slave-master of the South hs 
slaves, — by the roundness of their limbs and tie 
amount of work they can get out of them. 

The following from a woman's paper, the "Reso- 
lution," may be deserving of consideration : — 

"warning to husbands. 

"The great want of women at the presen; is 
money — money for their personal wants, and 
money to carry out their plans. I propose that 
they shall earn, that they shall consider it as lon- 
orable to work for money as for board, aid I 
demand for them equal pay for equal wok. I 
demand that the bearing and rearing of chidren, 
the most exacting of employments, and invdving 
the most terrible risks, shall be the best paic work 
in the world, and husbands shall treat their wives 
with at least as much consideration, and acknowl- 
edge them entitled to as much money, as wet 
nurses. 

The meaning of this is, that wives are tbout to 
strike for greenbacks ; so much for evey baby 
born. No greenbacks, no more sons am daugh- 
ters. No greenbacks, no more population, no more 
boys to carry on the great enterprises c the age. 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. I I 

/The scale of prices for maternal duties are as fol- 
lows : — 

Girl babies $100 

Boy babies 200 

Twin babies 300 

Twins (both boys) 400 

Triplets 500 

Triplets (all boys) 1,000 

Terms : C. O. D. No credit beyond first child, 
the motto being, " Pay up, or dry up." Husbands 
who desire to transmit their names to posterity 
will please notice and take a new departure." 

Nothing else would so improve the health, and 
increase the hope and cheer of women, as less 
work, and more leisure and society ; as less 
kitchen, and more amusements. When we con- 
sider how many wives are dwarfed in mind and 
soul by the tread-mill of a kitchen, where they are 
compelled by the wants of their families to.work 
themselves to death, and to breathe its pestilential 
air, polluted with the effluvia of cooking, it is no 
wonder that they are soon broken down in body, 
mind, and spirits, and become prematurely old, and 
lose their beauty, grace, vivacity, and cheer, and 
become sickly. It is only a wonder they have any 
health, and live so long as they do. 

Men often wonder why girls lose their cheer, 
grace, and charms in a few years after marriage, 



12 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 

and become peevish and uninteresting. They will 
find the reason in the kitchen, where their wives 
work themselves to death. 

Another reason why mothers have to work so 
hard is, too many of them bring up their daughters 
in idleness ; because they and their daughters 
think that work, for a young woman, is disreputa- 
ble, and lessens their chances for a good match or 
profitable marriage, — than which nothing is fur- 
ther from the truth. Every young man worth 
marrying, no matter what his wealth, not only 
appreciates a girl's knowing how to work and to 
keep house, but they consider it a necessary ac- 
complishment to a good wife, even if she never 
has any occasion to show her skill in these, since 
most wives have to oversee their houses, hence it 
is necessary that they k?iow when their servants 
do their work right. The following shows that 
I am not alone in my opinion in this matter: — 

" Qne great fault of American housekeeping at 
present is, that wives and daughters know too lit- 
tle about its details. They cannot cook, chamber- 
work is too much of a drudgery, a seamstress 
must be employed to do their sewing, while they 
live a life of fashion or of quiet ease, with no 
special duties to occupy their time. Family com- 
fort depends too much upon the efficiency of 
'help.' They dominate in our households be- 
cause they know that they are absolutely necessary 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 1 3 

to the maintenance of family unity. While the 
mothers of the present generation are acquainted 
with all the departments of domestic service, the 
daughters are left untaught in this most necessary 
branch of female education. Music, botany, the 
languages and dancing, constitute the fund of 
knowledge which it is thought necessary for them 
to possess, and they undertake the care of a house- 
hold without knowing the first rudiments of its 
duties. 

It is no wonder that young men with limited in- 
comes shrink from marriage which is followed of 
necessity by a retinue of servants for the house- 
hold, disturbing that comfort and serenity which 
should pertain to the first years of married life, 
and compelling expenses which are hard to be 
borne. It is not extravagance in dress that alarms, 
it is the useless expense of servants. Two ser- 
vants in a family of two or three persons is com- 
mon, yet it is in most cases a foolish parade of 
indolence or of ignorance on the part of the mis- 
tress. This is the reason why marriages among 
respectable, honest, and ambitious young men are 
becoming so unfrequent. They cannot at the 
beginning undergo the expense of maintaining 
such a body of servants as are required to perform 
the common duties of housekeeping, when the mis- 
tress herself does not know how to do them. This 
error is sapping the foundations of national life 



14 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

and virtue. The country. is filling with children of 
foreigners instead of children of the native born. 
If young men who would do better under different 
circumstances become vicious, the mothers who 
have failed to educate their daughters so that they 
may become useful and helpful wives, have them- 
selves to blame in part. Most young men prefer 
a home of their own ; they long for it with intense 
desire. But they fear debt and bankruptcy. They 
know that they cannot live according to the pre- 
vailing style, so they choose to live single and be 
honest. The error can be remedied, and the 
women of the country can show no truer patriotism 
than by correcting the fault so deplorable in its 
consequences." 

Our young women are educated more for show 
than for usefulness, like some furniture ; and to 
deceive, in keeping their true character and dispo- 
sitions securely covered beneath smiles and agree- 
ableness until after marriage, if they are so fortu- 
nate as to marry, when they pour out their long 
pent-up vials of wrath upon the head of their de- 
voted husbands. 

Too many of them are mere fashionable walk- 
ing figures for advertising the wares of milliners 
and dry-goods men. Such young women will do 
for flirtations with young men, but no sensible 
young men wants them for w r ives. Of such young 
ladies the " Waverley Magazine " says : — 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 1 5 

" Ladies — caged birds of beautiful plumage but 
sickly looks — pale pets of the parlor, who vege- 
tate in unhealthy atmosphere, like the potato ger- 
minating in a dark cellar, why do you not go into 
the open air and warm sunshine, and add lustre to 
your eyes, bloom to your cheeks, elasticity to your 
steps, and vigor to your frames ? Take exercise ; 
run up the hill for a wager, and down again for fun ; 
roam the fields, climb the fences, leap the ditches, 
wade the brooks, and, after a day of exhilarating 
exercise and unrestricted liberty, go home with an 
appetite acquired by healthy enjoyment. The 
beautiful and blooming young lady — rosy-cheeked 
and bright-eyed — who can darn a stocking, mend 
her own dress, command a regiment of pots and 
kettles, feed the pigs, milk the cows, and be the 
lady when required, is a girl that young men are in 
quest of for a wife. But you pining, screwed-up, 
wasp-waisted, doll-dressed, consumption-mortgaged, 
music-murdering, novel-devouring, daughters of 
fashion and idleness, you are no more fit for mat- 
rimony than a pullet is to look after a brood of 
fourteen chickens. The truth is, my dear girls, 
you want less fashionable restraint and more liberty 
of action ; more kitchen and less parlor ; more leg 
exercise and less sofa; more pudding and less 
piano ; more frankness and less mock modesty. 
Loosen your waist-strings, and breathe the pure 



1 6 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN* 

atmosphere, and become something as good and 
beautiful as nature designed." 

This is all wrong, for which mothers are more to 
blame than their daughters. And they will repent 
of their course when it is too late ; for nothing else 
is more ruinous to young women than idleness, 
which leaves them to the prey of improper thoughts 
and temptations, which never trouble the industri- 
ous. Such young women may pride themselves 
on their soft hands, but nobody prides themselves 
on the soft brains, addled with fashions, of such 
young women. 

The following selection has more truth than 
poetry : — 

"It is a painful spectacle, in families where 
a mother is the drudge, to see the daughters, 
elegantly dressed, reclining at their ease with their 
drawing, their music, their fancy work, and their 
reading, beguiling themselves of the lapse of hours, 
days, and weeks, and never dreaming of their 
responsibilities ; but as a necessary consequence 
they neglect duty, grow wear}' of their useless 
lives, lay hold of every newly-invented stimu- 
lant to arouse their drooping energy, and blaming 
their fate, when they dare not blame their God, 
for having placed them where they are. These 
individuals will often tell you, with an air of 
affected compassion (for who can believe it real ?), 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, I J 

that poor mamma is working herself to death ; yet 
no sooner do you propose that they should assist 
her, than they declare she is quite in her element ; 
in short, that she would never be happy if she had 
only half as much to do." 

At the meeting of the American Public Health 
Association at Cincinnati, Dr. Jarvis, of Massa- 
chusetts, is reported as having made the following 
remarks, which are as comprehensive, practical, 
and vital as any tract for the times need be : — 

" Dr. Jarvis said that much of the ill-heaith of 
families was the result of the culpable foolishness 
of bringing up girls with no idea of household 
work. A girl is married when she knows how to 
talk and sing, and play indifferently on the piano. 
She is full of poetry, joyousness, aesthetic tastes, 
but she knows' literally nothing about the details 
of the house-work. But there she is. She may 
not know the difference between a raw and boiled 
potato, between flour in the barrel and in the loaf 
on the table. A serving woman has to be hired, 
and very few of them know really how to cook. 
A dressmaker has a regular course of training to 
fit her for her work, but it is supposed that any one 
can cook. She says to-day 'We are lucky ; our 
bread is light and sweet.' Would any woman 
tolerate a dressmaker who should say : ' We are 
lucky to-day ; the dress fits well ' ? To-morrow the 
cook says : ' We are unlucky to-day ; the bread is 



1 8 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 

sour and heavy.' If a dressmaker should cut her 
dresses by luck rather than by system, she would 
quickly get her discharge. But, no ; husband 
must sit down to the sour bread and ill-cooked 
meat. He will not say anything, and the guests 
will overlook defects and sit down in sorrow and 
eat their bread in bitterness. We are more sure 
of being well dressed than of being well fed. The 
outer man is tolerably sure of comfort, but the 
inner man must sit down to the table with fear and 
trembling. The Irish girl in the kitchen is very 
often the cause of damage and loss in the count- 
ing-room. The Irish girl makes sour bread, which 
makes bad blood and weak brain. The merchant 
goes down to the counting-room weak, head ach- 
ing, and enervated. He does not know what is 
the matter ; but a Mephistopheles, could he look 
into his stomach, would see the sour bread there. 
He believed that poverty ran through the whole 
man. It became part of his moral and intellectual 
elements. Poor food made a poor man, and the 
poor elements went down to his posterity. He 
believed strongly in hereditary transmissions, but 
even if they did not occur, there was a fact to be 
noticed, namely, that if a man had nothing to 
transmit, the child would have nothing. This 
would apply to the moral and intellectual elements, 
as well as to the physical condition." 

If men who complain of their wives losing their 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 1 9 

beauty, grace, and vivacity, and being prematurely 
old, will give them more leisure, society, and 
amusements, they will find them as cheerful, 
pretty, and lovely as Mrs. B., whom they so much 
admire. 

It is very strange that women, who are such 
great imitators, have not imitated men in their 
strikes, and long ago struck for less hours of work, 
and more pay. If men had to do women's work, 
cook, sew on buttons, wash and do up their shirts, 
they would not hold out long against such a strike 
before they would gracefully yield, and grant all 
women asked, and more. In no other way could 
women better and sooner make themselves appre- 
ciated than by such a step. 

True, it would cause a row in many homes ; but 
there would be more happiness in them, after the 
storm had passed, than before ; for the wife would 
be more appreciated and loved, and the men would 
be as pleased with the change as their wives. 

It is time that the mission of women in the 
world was better understood. Her mission is well 
expressed in the following extract from a writer in 
" Blackwood's Magazine." He says : — 

" Great, indeed, is the task assigned to women ! 
Who can estimate its dignity ? Not to make laws, 
not to lead armies, not to govern empires ; but to 
form those by whom laws are made, armies led, 
and empires governed ; to guard against the slight- 



20 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 

est taint of bodily infirmity, the frail, yet spotless 
creature, whose moral, no less than physical being, 
must be derived from her ; to inspire those princi- 
ples, to inculcate those doctrines, to animate those 
sentiments which generations yet unborn, and na- 
tions yet uncivilized, will learn to bless ; to soften 
firmness into mercy, and chasten honor into refine- 
ment; to exalt generosity, into virtue, by a soothing 
care to allay the anguish of the mind ; by her 
tenderness to disarm passion ; by her purity to 
triumph over sense ; to cheer the scholar sink- 
ing under his toil ; to console the statesman for 
the ingratitude of a mistaken people ; to be com- 
pensation for friends that are perfidious, for happi- 
ness that has passed away. Such is her vocation. 
The couch of the tortured sufferer, the prison of 
the deserted friend, the cross of the rejected 
Saviour : these are the theatre on which her great- 
est triumphs have been achieved. Such is her 
destiny : to visit the forsaken, to attend the neg- 
lected when monarchs abandon, when counsellors 
betray, when injustice persecutes, when brethren 
and disciples flee, to remain unshaken and un- 
changed, and to exhibit in this lower world a type 
of that love, constant, pure, and ineffable, which 
in another we are taught to believe the test of 
virtue." 

Another reason why women are so sickly, and so 
many die prematurely, is, because the diseases 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 21 

which are peculiar to them are so little understood 
by the profession generally. There is a criminal 
ignorance among general practitioners in regard to 
the diseases of women. Indeed, there are but few 
physicians who thoroughly understand them, and 
can treat them successfully. In consequence, God 
and women only know what they suffer from the 
useless and dangerous experiments of physicians. 
Often they suffer more from the malt7-eatment of 
their family doctor than from their disease. In 
fact, they would be better off, as a general thing, 
and suffer less and live longer, if they did not doc- 
tor at all with common physicians, whose greatest 
sins are their ignorance of the diseases of women, 
their bad treatment of them, and want of good 
faith with them. 

This, with the fact that most physicians believe, 
or pretend to believe, that an examination of the 
generative organs of women is necessary in 
almost every case of their diseases, is one of the 
principal reasons that most women, especially 
young women, neglect to consult a physician until 
on the verge of the grave, when their diseases are 
past the skill of physicians and the aid of medicine. 

How many women are compelled to undergo 
unnecessary and useless examinations, which out- 
rages their modesty, — women's greatest and best 
protector to their person, virtue, and purity, — and 
most revolting and disgusting to their husbands ; 



22 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 

and they are subjected to cauterization every few 
days for weeks, months, and even years, which is 
most painful and destructive to the nervous system, 
health, and mind. 

Most of these examinations are unnecessary, 
hence they are a great imposition and insult to 
women's credulity and confidence in their physi- 
cian. Because husbands do not like to submit 
their wives to such personal examinations, know- 
ing the unpleasantness of it to themselves and 
wives, and the danger of it to their virtue and 
purity, they rightly object to such examinations, ex- 
cept it is unquestionably necessary ; and hence they 
are unwilling to put their wives and daughters under 
the. care of such examining doctors, which causes 
delay in their treatment, till they suffer much, or it 
is too late to cure them. They dislike to pay a 
physician for visiting their wives and daughters 
for weeks and months, to make these revolting, 
unnecessary examinations, and unnecessary, cruel, and 
torturing applications of caustics to the parts. 

It is true that there is now and then a case 
which requires such aji examination, but they are 
rare. A physician who has made these diseases 
and their treatment a special study for years, can 
tell more what diseases women have by asking 
them a few questions, than common practitioners 
can with all the examinations they can make. 
There is no more necessity for seeing and feeling of 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 2$ 

the generative organs of women, in order to know 
their disease, than of the stomach, heart, or lungs ; 
for if we understand the disease, we can tell one 
disease by its symptoms as well as another. In fact, 
such physicians know no more about the case after 
such an examination than before, for they know 
nothing about it any way, as their want of success 
in their treatment//w<?.r. 

Having lectured many years to ladies on health 
and diseases of women, and made these diseases 
and their treatment a specialty, I speak from ex- 
perience when I say, that not one case in a hundred 
of the diseases peculiar to women requires any 
examination of their generative organs, either with 
the hand or speculum. 

Perhaps I treat as many, or more, of these cases 
than any other physician, and yet I seldom find it 
necessary to make such examinations. To secure 
success in the treatment of the diseases of women, 
as with all other diseases, they should receive treat- 
ment in the early stages. Yet, I have cured many 
cases when they have been bed-ridden from three 
to fifteen years, in from eight months to a year. 
But it is neither best, nor safe, to allow these, or 
any other diseases, to continue such a length of 
time \ as they cause much suffering, and cost 
much more to cure them, if they can be cured, 
after so long standing. I regret that I cannot cure 
all cases of these diseases which come to me ; but 



24 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

as I am not a " cure-all doctor" I find many cases 
which have been so long neglected, they have 
passed to the incurable stage, and cannot be cured. 
Yet, there are no cases, although incurable, which 
cannot be relieved and helped, and change their 
suffering and misery to lives of comparative ease 
and comfort, which is a great object to them and 
their friends. Thousands of young women are ren- 
dered miserable and useless for life, by not having 
the advice and treatment of a physician in time, 
when they need one, which, in a great measure, is 
the fault of mothers, who have too much mock mod- 
esty and false delicacy to do their duty in instruct- 
ing their daughters in regard to themselves, and 
the functions and diseases peculiar to women. 
Mothers do not realize the great responsibility rest- 
ing on them in regard to this matter, and that the 
happiness or misery of their daughters, in after 
life, depends much on their doing their whole duty 
to them, and seeing that their cases are attended to 
in season, while they can be cured, when they 
would be saved from sickness, suffering, and an 
early grave. 

There are but few, if any, other diseases to 
which flesh is heir, that so much requires experi- 
enced physicians and prompt treatment, as the dis- 
eases of women. Realizing this fact, and the 
necessity for such physicians, and the vast amount 
of sickness and suffering that could be prevented, 



THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 2$ 

and the health and precious lives that could be 
saved annually, I, at an early day in my practice, 
turned my attention to these diseases, and made 
the study of them, and their treatment > a specialty, 
and have lectured on them for years, which, with 
an extensive and successful practice in this class of 
diseases, has given me a knowledge of them and an 
experience in their treatment, unsurpassed by any 
other physician in this country. 

Women know they feel badly, tire easily, and are 
nervous, irritable, and despondent; but they do 
not know that the cause of all this may be a dis- 
ease of the organs of generation. And they can 
get no information, nor satisfaction, by consulting 
their family physician, who knows no more about 
the cause of their trouble than they do. 

Therefore, they suffer for months and years for 
the want of proper medical treatment, which would 
soon restore them to health. Such treatment they 
cannot receive from general practitioners ; hence 
they become discouraged, lose confidence in all 
physicians, and conclude that there is no help for 
them, and that their disease and suffering are the 
penalty for being women • and hence they bear 
their affliction with Christian fortitude, as best 
they can. Yet they feel that their lot is a hard 
one, and that life, and all its joys, are embittered 
by their sufferings ; and that they could make their 
homes more pleasant, and their family more happy, 



26 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

and themselves enjoy life much better, if they were 
well. 

And although women suffer so much from dis- 
ease peculiar to their sex, I know that all their suf- 
fering can be prevented, and all their diseases 
aired, if properly treated in the early stages of them. 

In order to assist women in understanding their 
diseases, and to induce them to have them treated 
in their first stage, I will here give the principal 
diseases most common with them, and their symp- 
toms ; while they will find the diseases of the 
lungs, heart, liver, stomach, etc., described in my 
pamphlet, "The Invalid's Friend," for which they 
had better send. 



MENSTRUATION, AND DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE 
ORGANS OF WOMEN. 

Menstruation is a very important function of 
woman ; and yet, there are but few women who 
have natural menses. Perhaps there is no other 
matter pertaining to women, of which they are 
more ignorant, and of which they have such fool- 
ish ideas, as in regard to their u monthly periods. " 
The reason of this ignorance of themselves, is 
the idea that a knowledge of themselves, of the 
mechanism of their bodies, and the function of the 
different organs of their system, is not only unne- 
cessary, but vulgar. 



MENS TR UA TION. 2 J 

Therefore, women give no attention to anat- 
omy and physiology, nor the laws of health and 
life. The result of such ignorance, which is en- 
couraged by many physicians, is fearful to contem- 
plate. It has made most women invalids, turned 
our homes into family hospitals, and filled them 
with puny, sickly children. 

It seems strange that intelligent, educated wom- 
en should be so criminally ignorant of this most 
important science, on which health, happiness, and 
life depend. 

The appearance of the menses, which usually 
takes place in this country at the age of fourteen 
or fifteen, is evidence that the sexual system of 
woman is maturely developed. If the woman is 
healthy, the menses occur every four weeks, and 
continue until the age of forty-five or fifty ; and 
with some women, they have continued to the age 
of sixty. If the menses are regular, they appear 
every twenty-eight days, and continue three or four 
days ; but with many women, owing to the diseased 
condition of the generative organs, or other organs 
of the system, they continue from five to ten days, 
and reappear every two or three weeks, and in 
cases where the system is much reduced, they con- 
tinue all the time, more or less, for weeks and 
months. And it is very common, with sickly wom- 
en, that the menses cease altogether for months, 
and even years. 



28 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

In such cases, women are generally much 
troubled with leucorrhoza, and more or less bloat- 
ing of the bowels ; yet the menses may be sup- 
pressed, and the woman have neither of these 
symptoms. While it is natural for the menses to 
continue until the ages of forty-five or fifty, yet 
they frequently stop at any time after twenty years. 
This is often owing to poor health \ and yet there 
have been cases when they have stopped, when the 
woman seemed to be in good health, for which we 
cannot account. There are but few women, com- 
paratively speaking, who have natural menses. 
With most women it is only a severe hemorrhage 
of the womb, which is very debilitating, and results 
in other diseases, and the breaking down of the 
constitution. It is truly a wonder that such women 
live so long, and lose so much blood monthly. 
In natural menstruation there is but little flood. 

Most women think that their menses regulate 
their health, and hence nothing alarms them more 
than any irregularity in menstruation, and conse- 
quently they spend much time and money in trying 
to regulate them. And this idea is encouraged 
by the medical profession generally, in order that 
they may make it the scapegoat for their ignor- 
ance of the diseases of women. While no woman 
can be in good health, whose menses are irregu- 
lar, poor health is the cause of all irregularities in 
the monthly periods. 



MEN'S TR UA TIO N. 2 9 

In consequence of the false idea, that the health 
of women depends on the regularity of their 
menses, all treatment is directed to this function, 
and thousands of women are killed or die annu- 
ally by such malpractice. All such cases, in the 
hands of a skilful physician, who understands the 
cause of the menstrual irregularity, and diseases of 
other parts of the body, could be cured, and thus 
save many precious lives. 

If there is any irregularity in the menses, the 
cause will generally be found in some disease of 
the system, other than in the generative organs. 
Restore the patient's health, and her menses will 
become right. But, certain diseases of the gene- 
rative organs, such as severe prolapsus, or falling 
of the womb, and chronic inflammation of it, con- 
gested or swollen womb, displacements, tumors 
and cancers of the womb, cause menstrual irregu- 
larities. Yet it is true, as I have said, that most 
cases of irregular menses are caused by sickness 
and poor health, and hence the medical treat- 
ment should be for the restoration of the general 
health. 

And in no case should women take any of the 
thousand-and-one advertised pills and other nos- 
trums, for "regulating and bringing on the menses 
under all circumstances" as they seldom or never 
produce the results they promise, while they are 
very injurious to health. 



3<D THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 

DYSMENORRHEA. 

Most women have more or less pain at menstru- 
ation. The pain varies from a slight indisposition 
to the most excruciating suffering. Women of a 
nervous temperament, pale complexion, with deli- 
cate constitutions, are generally more subject to 
painful menstruation than others. But any woman 
who has a disease of the womb may have pain at 
such times. 

The severe pains are usually preceded for a day 
or two by a sensation of coldness and uneasiness, 
headache, pain in the back, mostly in the region 
of the sacrum, and extending around the pelvis and 
down the thighs, which may be constant ; but usu- 
ally they are more or less intermittent. Often there is 
a distressing sensation of bearing down, like labor 
pains, and often they are equal to labor pains, and 
sometimes much worse. In such cases the menstrual 
discharge is irregular, and often clots of blood are 
passed. Many women suffer so much at their 
monthly periods, that they hardly recover from the 
effects before the next period, while some have fits 
and spasms, during which they are unconscious. 

In many cases the severe suffering, with the 
dread of the return of the monthly periods, unfits 
women for the pleasures and duties of life. 

Whatever diseases a woman has that impairs her 
general health, is one cause of painful menstrua- 



SWOLLEN WOMB. 3 I 

tion. But the principal cause is chronic inflamma- 
tion of the womb. Yet women, who generally 
have no pain with their periods, may suffer severely 
sometimes from colds, at the commencement of 
the menstrual function. For this reason women 
should avoid getting their feet wet at such times. 

Women who usually have severe pain at menstru- 
ation, become very nervous and despondent, in con- 
sequence of their nerves becoming much diseased. 

Although so many women suffer so much at the 
time of their monthly periods, I know there is no 
case that cannot be relieved in a short time, and 
cured with a few months , treatment, so they will 
have no more painful menses, because I have 
cured the severest cases. Indeed, although I have 
had a large practice in these cases, I have never 
treated a case of dysmenorrhoea I did not cure ; 
which fact I state more for the benefit of women 
than myself. Therefore, there is no need of wom- 
en suffering with painful menstruation. 

SWOLLEN WOMB. 

This is a very common disease at the present 
time, yet it is not well understood by the medical 
profession. The womb may be swollen from a 
few ounces to ten or twenty pounds. 

Although the swollen or congested condition of 
the womb is very common, yet it is the least un- 
derstood by physicians of any of the diseases of 



32 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

women. For this reason the general practitioner 
often mistakes a congested and swollen womb for a 
tumor in the vagina or the womb, or for dropsy of 
it ; and they have persuaded women to allow them 
to cut it out, which, of course, would result in death 
in a short time. In consequence of such a mistake 
in diagnosis of the disease, women not only suffer 
months and years from their diseases, but also 
from improper medical treatment. 

When I think of such blunders of physicians, 
and the cruel treatment women are subjected to, 
such as cauterizing, or burning the womb and 
vagina with caustic, which in a diseased condition 
are very sensitive, I do not wonder that women 
have such a dread of doctors, and are so unwilling 
to consult them. 

Yet I can assure women, that all diseases pecu- 
liar to their sex can be cured, if properly treated 
in their first stages, without pain or any disagree- 
able treatment, and generally without an examina- 
tion of the generative- organs. 

I speak what I know from experience in the 
treatment of these diseases. 

The symptoms of a congested or swollen womb 
are more or less pain in it by spells, with a sensa- 
tion of something large and heavy in the bowels, 
which causes a dragging dozwt sensation, especially 
when the woman is much on her feet, and more 
or less pain in the back. Sometimes there is much 



SWOLLEN WOMB, 33 

pain, faintness, and even spasms, at stools, and a 
necessity to pass urine often, which is caused by 
the pressure of the enlarged uterus upon the rectum 
and bladder. Many women thus afflicted go days 
without a movement of the bowels, which is very 
injurious to health, and sometimes results in death 
from apoplexy at stool. 

In all cases with these diseases, the bowels 
should move every day, or surely every other day. 
The longer women go, in such cases, without a 
movement of the bowels, the more painful and dan- 
gerous will the evacuation of them be. 

In cases of a badly swollen womb, it hurts women 
to stand, walk, ride, and even to lie on their back, 
in consequence of the pressure of it upon the rec- 
tum and spine, which causes more or less pain ; 
and when they turn in bed from one side to the 
other, they feel something heavy, as they express 
it, fall down in their bowels. 

In cases where there is much enlargement of 
the uterus, women have the appearance of preg- 
nancy, and many suppose themselves to be preg- 
nant, which mistake time corrects. 

Married women, who are troubled with this dis- 
ease, often find cohabiting more or less painful by 
spells, especially when the womb is much enlarged, 
and is low down in the vagina, when there is a 
painful shock, like a shock of electricity, runs over 
them, destroying ail pleasure. 



34 THE DISEASES OF IVOME.Y. 

In all cases of swollen womb, owing to the size 
and weight of it, there is more or less prolapsus, 
which increases with the increased size and weight 
of the uterus. There is no trouble in curing this 
disease in its first stages, if it is properly treated. 
Therefore, women having any symptoms of this 
disease, should, at once, consult a physician who 
is experienced in the treatment of the diseases of 
women. 

The serious consequence of a mistake in the 
diagnosis of the disease of the womb, which may 
result in suffering for months and years, from the 
disease and bad treatment, and perhaps confine 
women to the bed for years, shows how important 
it is that women with diseases peculiar to their 
sex, consult an experienced physician, who has 
made the diseases of women a study, and their 
treatment a specialty. 

In all cases of swollen, or congested womb, as 
well as of prolapsus, a proper pessary, to support it, 
is important. Such a supporter gives the liga- 
ments which support the womb a chance to con- 
tract, rest, and to gain strength. 

Often in the first and second stages of this dis- 
ease, and of prolapsus, wearing a proper pessary a, 
few weeks is all that is necessary to effect a cure. 

And in all cases where medicine is required, the 
cure can be effected in less time with such a 
pessary than without it. 



PESSARIES. 35 

PESSARIES. 

There are many kind of pessaries, or womb 
supporters, now in use ; but there are more or less 
serious objections to them all ; and none of them 
can be depended on in bad cases of prolapsus ; 
while in cases of Antroversion and Retroversion of 
the womb, there are no instruments which can be 
relied on, and there are only a few pessaries that 
give any relief in prolapsus. 

My Spiral-Wire-Spring-Cup Pessary, which is 
used both with, and without a stem supporter, as 
the case may require, is not only the best pessary 
ever used, but it can be adapted to all cases of 
Prolapsus, Antroversion, and Retroversion. By the 
use of this pessary relief is immediately obtained, 
and women can walk with ease who have not 
walked for months and years. 

It is not true, as generally supposed, that if a 
woman commences wearing a pessary, she will be 
obliged to wear it ever after. This false idea pre- 
vents many women from wearing a pessary when 
they need one, and should wear one, which would 
save them from years of suffering, and prevent 
their having some other chronic disease for life. 
With as much reason and propriety it might be 
contended, that if a man with a broken leg wears 
a splint to keep the bone in place till it heals, he 
will be obliged to always wear it. 



36 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

The fact is, when the disease which makes it 
necessary to wear a pessary is removed, there will 
be no more need of wearing one than there is of a 
man's wearing a splint on his leg after it is well. 

If women who are afflicted with prolapsus, 
would wear a proper pessary for a short time, — and 
all other pessaries are worse than none, — in the 
commencement of the disease, they would not only 
save much suffering, and prevent more serious dis- 
eases, such as congestion, ulceration, and cancer 
of the womb, but they would save much expe7ise in 
doctoring, from w T hich they derive little or no benefit. 

The inconvenience and injury of wearing most 
pessaries now in use, is the reason women are so 
opposed to using them, and why they neglect to 
do so when they should. The Spiral- Wire- Spring- 
Cup Pessary is free from all the objections to 
other pessaries, which makes it a favorite with 
those who need to wear one. 

This pessary is superior and preferable to all 
other pessaries for the following reasons : — 

1 st. Because it more effectually keeps the 
uterus in any desired position ; and, being elastic, 
it readily adjusts itself to any stage of prolapsus, 
and to any position of the body, or vagina, which 
makes it much easier to wear than any other hard 
pessary. 

2d.. Because it can be compressed into a very 
small space, which makes it easily inserted into the 



PESSARIES. 37 

vagina without pain or inconvenience, which wom- 
en will appreciate \ whereas the insertion of all 
other hard pessaries is attended with more or less 
pain or difficulty. 

3d. Because it is not only a specific for Prolap- 
sus Uteri, but it is adapted to Antroversion and Re- 
troversion of the womb. 

When the neck of the womb is adjusted in the 
cup, it is held in its natural position, and is pre- 
vented from tipping over, either forward or back- 
ward, as in Antroversion and Retroversion. 

4th. Because a piece of sponge, saturated with 
any preparation used for vaginal injections, in dis- 
eases of the vagina and womb, can be placed in 
the cup, without coming in contact with and irritat- 
ing the mucous membrane of the vagina, as it does 
with no protection. The insertion of such a 
sponge in the cup is of great importance in hem- 
orrhage of the womb, ulceration of the os iiteri y 
and flooding at menstruation ; and in the treatment 
of all diseases of the vagina and womb ; in which 
use of the sponge we secure a quicker, more certain, 
and much better results in the use of such prepara- 
tions, than can be had by using them for vaginal 
injections, which are not retained long enough to 
do much good. 

5 th. Because it is made of a metal spring-wire, 
which neither water, nor the acrid secretions of the 
womb and vagina affects ; and hence it does not cor- 



38 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

rode, nor become foul, like all other pessaries, and 
consequently it is always clean, and does not injure 
the vagina like other pessaries, which is a very im- 
portant quality in a pessary. 

It is not only better than all other pessaries, but 
it is cheaper than any other which gives any relief. 

UTERINE DROPSY. 

It may be difficult for a physician inexperienced 
in the diagnosis and treatment of the diseases of 
women, to tell a case of swollen or congested 
womb from dropsy of it ; but the experienced 
physician in these diseases has no trouble in diag- 
' nosticating them, although these diseases have 
some symptoms common to both. 

Uterine Dropsy consists in an excessive secre- 
tion and accumulation of fluid in the uterus, its re- 
tention being occasioned by the closing of the os 
uteri, or obliteration of the cervical canal. 

The accumulated fluid may be serous, mucous, 
albuminous, or puriform ; and its quantity may 
vary from one to two pints, to more than one hun- 
dred pounds. In many cases it is discharged after 
accumulating ta a certain extent, but soon accu- 
mulates again. 

Some authors consider the disease to be encys- 
ted, a single hydatid filling the cavity of the uterus. 
The general symptoms are, distention of the abdo- 
men very gradually, the menses cease, the urine is 



PROLAPSUS. 39 

scanty, the breasts enlarge and feel knotty and 
glandular, and when the accumulation is consider- 
able, the tongue becomes furred, the skin dry and 
hot, the pulse small and frequent, and the bowels 
irregular. In some cases the enlargement becomes 
so great that the patient is almost frightful to be- 
hold ! 

Tumors, which are morbid growths in the vagina 
and womb, are different in kind, and very common ; 
but they are of too little importance to interest the 
general reader, or to receive even a general notice 
in such a pamphlet as this. 

The next disease of women of which I will 
treat, is, 

PROLAPSUS. 

This is one of the most common diseases of 
women, with which most women, the unmarried as 
well as married, are more or less troubled by spells ; 
while many women are so afflicted with it that 
they can walk and go out but little ; while their 
suffering unfits them for the duties and pleas- 
ures of life, and many are bed-ridden for years 
with this disease. 

The symptoms of prolapsus are more or less 
weight, fulness and bearing down in the bowels, 
which, in the first stage, they only have by spells, 
when they have been much on their feet, or after 
walking ; and more or less pain and weakness in 



40 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 

the back, which usually extends around into the 
groin, especially if the ovaries are effected, as they 
frequently are. 

These symptoms are always worse in the after 
part of the day and evening ; and they increase in 
severity and frequency, and the spells continue 
longer, as the disease grows worse. 

In the second- stage of prolapsus, the bearing 
down is much worse, and it is more or less dif- 
ficult for them to walk much, or to be much on 
their feet, while at times they feel as though there 
was a hard, heavy substance in their bowels. 

In the third stage of this disease, women cannot 
walk any distance ; and it hurts them to stand, 
and by spells, to sit, owing to the partial protrusion 
of the womb through the orifice of the vagina ; and 
in some cases there is a darting pain in the womb, 
which is sometimes severe. 

During the fourth stage, women can neither walk, 
stand, nor sit; for in this stage there are cases 
when the womb comes out of the vagina into the 
world, and they are compelled to lie in bed all the 
time, for months, and even years, in which position 
they seldom suffer much, except when there is in- 
flammation and congestion of the womb, which is 
frequently the case. 

In fact, the weight of a congested or swollen 
condition of the womb, is frequently the cause of 
prolapsus. The womb is frequently swollen to 



PROLAPSUS. 41 

the size of two, six, and nine months' pregnancy, 
or so it weighs from one to nine pounds, while in a 
normal condition it weighs only a few ounces. By 
the constant tension of such a weight on the liga- 
ments which support the womb, they become elon- 
gated, and prolapsus is the result. 

In the second, third, and fourth stages of pro- 
lapsus, and especially if there is Antroversion or 
Retroversion connected with it, there is more or 
less difficulty in voiding urine and evacuating the 
bowels. In some cases the urine has to be passed 
very often, and in other cases it can only be passed 
by lying down. 

And in some cases of retroversion of the uterus, 
as in cases of swollen womb, the evacuation of the 
bowels is attended with severe pain, and frequently 
with fainting and spasms ; for which reason many 
women thus afflicted go days without a movement 
of the bowels, which is very injurious to health, 
and sometimes results in death from apoplexy at 
stool. 

In all cases with these diseases, the bowels 
should move every day, or surely every other day. 
The longer women go, in such cases, without a 
movement of the bowels, the more painful and 
dangerous will the evacuation of them be. 

With these diseases there is often " a sinking 
sensation, or goneness " at the stomach, with fre- 
quent nausea, and sometimes vomiting ; while cos- 



42 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

tiveness, flatulency, despondency, and melancholy 
are experienced more or less in all bad cases. 
Manv women having the above symptoms have 
been doctored to death for a disease of the 
stomach, while the cause of the stomach symp- 
toms is a disease of the uterus, which their family 
physician did not understand ; and hence he 
treated the symptoms of the stomach, which is 
denounced and dosed as the cause of all the 
trouble. 

In the commencement of these diseases, the 
menstruation is not effected ; but as they progress 
and grow worse, menstruation becomes irregular, 
with more or less flooding, and they have them 
too often and too long, or not often enough. 

With this disease women generally have more or 
less kucorrhcea, or whites, as they call them, 
which, when bad, causes more or less burning, 
smarting, and itching in the vagina, that is some- 
times very severe, causing much suffering, and 
sometimes unnatural sexual desire, while in other 
cases it destroys all sexual desire, and causes great 
despondency, and occasionally insanity. 

Women are often doctored for months and years 
for leucorrhxa y with but little relief, because their 
physician does not understand, and does not treat 
the cause of all the trouble. Hence it is no use to 
employ such physicians to treat the " Diseases of 
Women." 



LEUCORRHCEA . 43 

LEUCORRHCEA. 

In consequence of the diseases of the genera- 
tive Organs of women, of which I have treated in 
this chapter, many women have more or less leu- 
corrhcea, or whites, as women call them ; while 
many women suffer much from this disease. 
Females of all ages, from the infant of a few 
weeks old, to women of all ages, are subject to 
this disease. In fact, it is one of the most common 
diseases peculiar to women. 

It is a very common thing for female infants, 
and small girls, children of women who have had 
leucorrhcea badly for years, and especially when 
carrying them, to have it, and sometimes severely, 
and often it is so acrid that it causes irritation and 
soreness of the parts it comes in contact with. 

When leucorrhcea is very bad, it causes more or 
less burning, smarting, and itching in the vagina, 
which sometimes are so severe they can hardly 
be borne. And, in fact, so severe has the itching 
been in some cases as to cause insanity. And in 
all cases of severe leucorrhcea, the nerves become 
seriously affected, and women become nervous and 
irritable. 

There are cases of leucorrhcea which are so bad 
that husbands contract it of their wives, and the 
effects and symptoms of it are the same as of 
gonorrhoea — a private disease; while it is quite 



44 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

common for husbands whose wives have leucor- 
rhcea, to feel more or less irritation after cohabiting. 

When husbands are badly affected by the leu- 
corrhcea of their wives, some of them believe their 
wives have been unfaithful to them, and have 
contracted gonorrhoea of another man, and given 
it to them, while such wives are as innocent as an 
unborn babe. And yet, many such cases of leu- 
corrhcea is the result of sexual abuse, which is the 
fault of the husband and not of the wife. 

But owing to the ignorance of the medical and 
legal professions of these facts, many husbands 
have obtained a divorce from their wives on the 
ground of adultery. 

And while the innocent wife writhes in the 
agony of her disgrace in the sight of her children 
and friends, and finally dies of a broken heart, and 
is laid in the grave covered with shame and 
disgrace, the husband, who is the cause of her leu- 
corrhcea which he contracted, as well as of- her 
disgrace and all her woe, not only goes unpun- 
ished of man, but he has the sympathy of all who 
know of the matter, on account of his great mis- 
fortune, as it is called, in having such a wife, while 
the misfortune was of the wife's having such a hus- 
band. 

0! how much cruelty and injustice, there is in 
the world ! Yet, it is some satisfaction to those 
who suffer wrongly and are wrongly accused, to 



DISEASES OF THE OVARIES. 45 

know that there is a just God, who will right all 
wrongs, punish the guilty, and reward the good 
and innocent. And what is a just punishment for 
a husband, who has thus not only destroyed the 
peace and happiness of a wife, but disgraced and 
killed her? Duty to ladies compels me to* say, 
that all cases of leucorrhcea, even the very worst 
can be relieved at once, and cured in a reasonable 
time ; so no woman need be troubled with it long. 

DISEASES OF THE OVARIES. 

These diseases are very common • yet, like all 
other diseases of the generative organs of women, 
they are not understood by general practitioners. 
In fact, they are seldom detected until far ad- 
vanced, and in many cases not at all until after 
death. 

The principal diseases of the ovaries are dropsy, 
inflammation, which frequently results in suppura- 
tion or tumor, and ovarian tumors, which may be 
ftfo'ous, cancerous, scirrhus, and fungus he?7iatodes, 
or -encephaloid of authors. The fibrous tumor 
may vary in size from a few ounces to thirty or 
forty pounds, which does not generally affect the 
patient's health until it is so large that it mechan- 
ically affects the bladder and rectum. Sometimes 
the pressure of the tumor on the blood-vessels and 
nerves may cause more or less swelling of the 
limbs, and numbness or neuralgia. Ca?icer of the 



46 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 

ovaries is more frequent than cancer of the breast. 
This kind of tumor, in its early stage, is hard and 
uneven, and scirrhus-like ; but as the disease ad- 
vances it softens. If adhesion takes place to 
surrounding parts, the tumor will remain in the 
cavity of the pelvis, causing much greater suffer- 
ing ; otherwise it will rise into the abdominal cav- 
ity. As the disease advances, the constitution 
becomes affected, and the patient becomes ex- 
tremely debilitated, the surface becomes bloodless, 
and hectic fever sets in with small and frequent 
pulse, and rapid emaciation takes place. 

With the above-named disease, there is more or 
less pain and suffering, which increase as the dis- 
ease advances. 

The usual treatment for these tumors is extirpa- 
tion with the knife, yet nine out of ten of such 
operations result fatally. 

The best and most successful treatment is dry 
cupping, which, with but very little constitutional 
medicine to keep up the strength, cures nine cases 
out of ten by absorption. And the treatment being 
pleasant and easily applied by the patient, makes 
it a great favorite with all thus afflicted. In fact 
dry cupping, rightly applied, is the best remedy for 
diseases peculiar to women, known to the profes- 
sion. For an explanation of this treatment, send 
for the "Invalid's Friend." 

If women would avoid common and cancerous 
tumors of the ovaries, they should be treated when 



DROPSY OF THE OVARIES. 47 

they first feel pain in them, — which is located in 
the groins, — and then there would be but few, if 
any, fatal cases. But this is seldom done. As 
strange as it may seem, most women thus afflicted 
delay treatment until it is too late to cure them. 



DROPSY OF THE OVARIES. 

This disease is a collection of fluid, in one or 
more cysts or sacs. In the early stages of the 
disease, the patient merely complains of a weight 
and fulness in the pelvis. Soon, however, symp- 
toms of pregnancy become so prominent, that 
most women imagine themselves in a family way. 
But as the enlargement increases, the function of 
the bladder and rectum are seriously incommoded. 
The constitutional symptoms are, pain in the 
bowels, with fever, indicating inflammation of some 
part of the tumor, which may terminate in suppu- 
ration and produce hectic fever ; or, it may cause 
vomiting, tenderness in the bowels, and high fever, 
and prove fatal in a short time. Yet in most 
cases, these symptoms are not experienced, and 
little pain is felt, until the size obstructs respira- 
tion by pressure on the diaphragm and lungs. 

At this stage the constitution becomes broken, 
and dropsical effusions are induced, and the abdo- 
men becomes so tender the patient cannot bear 
pressure on it, and, worn out with feverishness, 
restless nighty, pains, and dyspepsia, expires. 



48 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN, 

I have intentionally reserved for the last disease 
of women, of which I shall treat in this pamphlet, 
the worst, and most horrible disease to which 
women are subject, viz.: — 

CARCINOMA UTERI. 

The most dreaded and most horrible disease of 
women, is cancer of the womb. When it is an- 
nounced by a physician in whom the people have 
confidence, that a woman has cancer of the uterus, 
it not only causes a cold shudder of horror to run 
through her, and all who learn of it, but it makes 
the physician's heart ache for her, especially if it is 
far advanced, when it is incurable. No one who 
has a particle of humanity left in his soul, can 
think, unmoved, of the terrible suffering a woman 
must endure with an incurable cancer of the 
uterus, before she dies, — in consequence of 
which this disease is more dreaded, and causes 
a greater horror than any other disease to which 
flesh is heir ! 

Cancer is a terrible disease, and causes much 
suffering, in whatever part of the system it is lo- 
cated ; but these sufferings are nothmg compared 
with the sufferings from cancer of the womb. 

It is a significant fact, that women are much 
more subject to cancers than men, and that they 
are more fatal with women than men. Indeed, 
they are three times more fatal among women 



CA R CI NO MA U TERI. 49 

than men ; which is principally due to the fact 
that this fatal disease is more apt to locate in the 
breast and uterus of women. And of these two 
organs, the uterus is more subject to cancer than 
the breasts. In fact, of all cases of cancer among 
women, more than one third 'is of the womb. 

The principal cause why cancers are so fatal 
among women, is their ignorance in regard to its 
symptoms, which vary according to the parts of the 
system in which it is located, and their neglect to 
consult a physician who understands this disease, 
in season, in its first stages. 

This may be accounted for on the ground that 
women have such a dread of a cancer, they fear to 
consult a physician even when they have symptoms 
of one, lest he tells them they have a cancer, and 
because they have so little faith in physicians. 

But surely, such reasons are not valid, nor any 
excuse for the neglect of a duty involving health, 
terrible sufferings, and a horrible death, as do can- 
cers when they have become incurable ! Notwith- 
standing that the medical profession generally 
contend that a cancer cannot be cured, especially 
cancer of the womb, still it is a fact, that many 
cases of cancers are cured, even of the uterus ; and 
that, too, even by some ^professional men, who, 
notwithstanding their success, are denounced 
quacks by the medical profession. Such are known 
as " cancer doctors." 



5<D THE DISEASES OF lVOMEN. 

Some such men may have been successful 
in the treatment of a cancer located where they 
can remove it by some local application, for which 
they have a recipe, yet it is certain patients would 
be more safe in the hands of an educated phy- 
sician, experienced in the treatment of cancers. 
Besides, while one of these unprofessional men 
may be successful, ninety-nine might do a patient 
great injury. 

Such men may remove a tumor only to have it 
return again, sooner or later, but they know noth- 
ing of remedies for purifying the blood, and de- 
stroying the cancer cells in it ; and hence it is of 
but little use to have a tumor removed under such 
circumstances. 

Let no one who has symptoms of a cancer be 
deterred from trying to have it cured, and lay 
down and die, without making an effort for life, 
merely because some old fogy physician in his dot- 
age, or some young physician in his conceit, who 
thinks the strongest proof of his wisdom and skill 
is to cry " quack," and echo the doctrines of the 
fathers of medicine, which say cancers cannot be 
cured, much less submit to have a cancer, tumor, 
or scirrhus cut out, which is the remedy of the pro- 
fession generally. 

The greatest danger from cancers, and the reason 
they are so fatal, is the neglect to have them treated 
on the appearance of their first symptoms, the scir- 



CARCINOMA UTERI. 5 1 

rhus stage, and before the tumors become large. 
Or, better still, have the blood treated for cancer 
humor, before any tumors appear. A cancer is 
not a local disease, as most people think. That is 
only the symptom, or effect of a cancer humor in 
the blood, where the cancer cells form, long before 
they are deposited in some parts of the system, and 
form cancers. Hence it does no good, but is rather 
an injury, and hastens its fatal termination, to cut 
them out, unless the patient has proper consti- 
tutional remedies for the blood, that will destroy 
the cancer cells in it. And no common blood- 
purifying remedies are of any use in cancers ; much 
less does cutting the system to pieces, or cutting 
out tumors, purify the blood. 

Proper local treatment, in connection with con- 
stitutional treatment, is not only beneficial but 
necessary; but local applications do not reach 
and remove the cause of cancers. For this reason, 
the removal of a cancer tumor, either by the knife 
or some caustic, gives no permanent relief; since 
it is well known that, sooner or later, such tumors 
will appear again, two or three times, either in the 
same place, or in other parts of the system. 
Therefore it seems strange that patients will sub- 
mit to the removal of a cancer tumor by the knife, 
expecting such an operation will cure it. If 
women consulted a physician experienced in the 
diagnosis and treatment of cancers, when they have 



52 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

pain or twinging sensation in the breast, and on 
the discovery of a tumor in them, they could be 
cured, and saved from the horrible death by a 
cancer. 

Scirrhus tumors may remain undiscovered for 
years, unless accidentally discovered ; for which 
reason it would be well for women to examine 
their breasts occasionally, to learn if there are any 
tumors in them ; and if so, there should be no 
delay in having them treated. 

And there should be no delay in attending to 
the first symptoms of cancer of the wotnb, since 
any delay may prove fatal. 

The leading physicians of this country and of 
Europe agree that chronic inflammation of the 
uterus and vagina is the cause of cancer in it, 
and hence if this cause was treated and removed 
there would be no cancer there. 

Such inflammation in time produces weakness 
of the generative organs, when ulceration takes 
place, and the cancer humor and cells locate there, 
producing a cancer. 

While all cases of chronic inflammation of the 
vagina and uterus do not result in cancer, and in- 
deed but few of them, yet, the fact that any such 
case of inflammation may result in a cancer of the 
womb, makes it very risky to delay having such 
inflammations cured. Therefore, every woman 
troubled with inflammation of the generative 



CARCINOMA UTERI, 53 

organs, the symptoms of which are painful menses 
and pains, by spells, in the uterus, and leucorrhoea 
should have such inflammation cured at once. 

Even if there was no danger of such inflamma- 
tion resulting in a cancer, it is important to have 
it cured, since it causes more or less pain and leu- 
corrhoea, which often becomes very troublesome 
and serious, as I have shown in another place. 

It is very important to have all diseases treated 
in their first and second stages, since health and 
life depend on it. But, in consequence of the terri- 
ble disease of cancer, the severe sufferings it pro- 
duces, and of its fatal result, it is much more impor- 
tant that it should be treated in its first stage, than 
common diseases. 

Therefore, no woman having a cancer, or any 
disease which may result in one, especially of the 
breasts or uterus, should delay treatment a month 
or a week, if they desire health and life, and 
dread the horrible death by a cancer ! Don't de- 
lude yourself with the hope that you have no can- 
cer, when you have the symptoms of one, and put* 
off its treatment until it is beyond the skill of phy- 
sicians and the aid of medicine. 

The local symptoms of carcinoma uteri, are, — 

i. More or less pain in the womb, which, in the 
first stage, may seldom be felt, but it increases in 
frequency and severity, as the disease progresses • 
yet, being more or less intermitting until the cancer 



54 THE DISEASES OF' WOMEN, 

is far advanced, when the pain is almost constant, 
although intermitting in severity. These pains are 
more severe when the patient is in an erect posi- 
tion, and when she walks or rides, since that po- 
sition and such exercise increase the congestion 
and inflammation of the uterus. 

In many cases of cancer of the womb, there is 
no pain in the commencement of the disease, nor 
even when the cancer cells are being deposited, 
since the tissues are pushed aside gradually with- 
out pain. And there is occasionally a case where 
the cancer runs its whole course without produc- 
ing any painful sensation ; hence the absence cf 
pain is no positive evidence that there is no can- 
cer developing in the womb, which shows the im- 
portance of consulting a physician experienced in 
cancers of that organ. 

Indeed, in carcinoma uteri, not only the pain may 
be absent, but it may sometimes be sympathetic, 
and located in the mamma, or breasts, in the sides, 
down the thighs, and other parts of the system ; in 
which case, if the physician is not well versed, or 
experienced in the symptoms of cancer of the 
womb, he is very liable to be deceived as to the 
cause of these pains, which mistake might prove 
fatal, in consequence of treating an imaginary dis- 
ease, or merely the symptoms of the real disease, 
until the cause of these pains, the cancer of the 
womb, had passed the curable stage. 



CARCINOMA UTERI. 55 

2. The second symptom of cancer of the uterus 
is Menorrhagia, — an unnatural discharge of blood, 
which is often the first symptom that attracts the 
patient's notice, and excites her fears and causes 
alarm. She loses blood once or twice between her 
monthly periods ; or, the blood, at the menstrual 
period, often passes in clots, and more than usual 
at such times. 

This bloody discharge, which diminishes as the 
disease advances, is as frequent a symptom of carci- 
noma uteri as is the pain in the womb. A cancer 
of the womb may be detected by an examination 
of that organ, even before there has been any pain 
or bloody discharges. In fact, a scirrhus of the 
womb is frequently accidentally discovered when 
making an examination of it for other diseases, 
before there has been any suspicion of cancer, 
either by the patient or her physician. 

3. There is, usually, serous discharges from the 
vagina most of the time, resembling leucorrhoza, 
which are often very offensive when the cancer has 
reached a certain stage. The discharges are some- 
times watery and pale ; but more frequently they are 
of a yellowish or greenish color, and of a creamy 
consistency, and at times it may be tinged with 
blood. It is usually so acrid as to produce excoria- 
tion of the external parts of the generative organs. 
As the disease advances, the discharges at times 
are quite black. There is usually more or less 



$6 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

irregularity in the menses, and uneasiness in stand- 
ing or walking, with a sense of weight pressing 
down upon the perineum. When the womb is 
much increased in size, with hardness, there is a 
distressing pressure upon the rectum and bladder, 
and more or less prolapsus. Occasionally there 
are lacerating pains, which are not severe until the 
disease has progressed to near the point of ulcera- 
tion. Sometimes, as the - disorganization goes on, 
the ulceration may involve the bladder and rectum, 
which greatly increases the fearful sufferings of the 
patient. When the malady changes from scirrhus 
to an open cancer, the pains are greatly aggravated, 
and there is then frequent hemorrhage, while the 
vaginal discharges become intolerably offensive. 

The pains may now be lacerating or burning, 
and the patient may have intense paroxysms, com- 
mencing in the uterine region, shooting through 
the loins and pubus, and down to the anus and 
thighs. Yet there is occasionally a case where 
there is no pelvic pain at all ; but such cases are 
very rare. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYMPTOMS AND EFFECTS. 

While the local changes are going on, the con- 
stitution of the patient may long remain apparently 
sound and strong, breaking down only under the 
long-continued pains and discharges. 



SYMPTOMS AND EFFECTS. 57 

As the disease progresses the patient usually 
becomes worn out, and gradually sinks ; the com- 
plexion acquires a sallow hue and peculiar expres- 
sion, which indicates the general cancerous ca- 
chexy. The digestive organs and assimilative, 
functions become weakened, and marasmus, or 
emaciation, is added to the symptoms of anaemia 
or bloodlessness. In some cases, owing to the 
deterioration of the blood by the cancer humor 
and cells, the system breaks down .before the 
disease becomes located, and the patient dies 
without the sufferings of an open cancer. 

Yet such patients suffer pains, more or less, in- 
different parts of the body, and become despon- 
dent and weak, and their complexion acquires a 
dingy or chlorotic-looking tint of the skin. 

Finally, when cachexy has become fully devel- 
oped, other organs become impaired, and imper- 
fectly perform their function ; the digestive organs 
become weak ; the circulation languid and irreg- 
ular, and in some cases the cancerous fever sets in, 
and the patient gradually sinks into the grave. 

Cancer of the uterus usually attacks women from 
forty to fifty years of age ; yet there have been 
cases of this disease among women under twenty 
years, and married women are much more subject 
to it than the unmarried, and it is more frequent 
among women who have borne large families, or 
had many miscarriages, than others. 



58 THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

Patients usually die with this disease in from 
two to three years after the detection of the can- 
cer \ yet in some cases of weak constitutions, the 
patient may be in the grave in a few months after 
its detection. 

The result of all cancers of the womb depends 
on its early detection, before far advanced, and its 
prompt and skilful treatment. Hence, delay in its 
detection and treatment is not only dangerous but 
fatal 



THE SEXUAL PASSION. 

ITS NATURE AND ABUSE. 

There is no other passion of man that is more 
noble and ennobling, and that has such a high 
mission in the world, as the sexual passion ; and 
yet there is no other that is so abused, and the 
abuse of which produces so much and so great evil 
as this, the ruling passion of men and women. 

It is the bond of union between the sexes, and 
the source of all affection between men and 
women, and hence the basis of marriage, home, 
and society. 

It is the source of children, the main-spring of 
action, the measure of our physical powers, and 
our mental and moral calibre. 

It moulds the human form divine into beautiful 
proportions ; gives brilliancy to the mind, polishes 
our manners, gives grace and dignity to our move- 
ments, charm to conversation, and is the most 
refining and inspiring passion of mankind, the 
most elevating to character^ and beautifying to 
form and feature. 

Although it is all this, and more, in its nature, 

(59) 



60 THE SEXUAL PASSION, 

yet, because it is more abused than any other 
passion, it is more denounced. 

While we cannot denounce too strongly its 
abuse, there is no reason to denounce the passion, 
which is so necessary to fit us for this state of 
being. 

God made man with such appetites and pas- 
sions as were necessary to him, and they are all 
right and good in themselves. 

Therefore, we cannot take from him a single 
appetite or passion, without marring the human 
form divine ; nor deny him their proper gratifica- 
tion, according to the laws of his being, without 
diminishing the sum of human happiness. 

It is not the sexual passion that is wrong, and 
that has produced so much evil, and filled the 
world with sin and sorrow; but its abuse. Why 
then should we denounce it, and try to suppress or 
destroy it? which we cannot do, since it is the 
work of God, and necessary to this life. 

In so doing, we war against God, as well as 
against our nature. It argues nothing against 
sexual love because it has been abused. If we 
should destroy every faculty and passion of man 
that has been abused, there would be nothing of 
him left. 

The fact that God made sexual love, and made 
the propagation of the human race to depend on 
its indulgence in marriage, when it not only adds 



THE SEXUAL PASSION, 6 1 

to the pleasures and happiness of life, is irrefuta- 
ble evidence that the passion and its indulgence is 
right and good. 

Without it the command, " Multiply and replen- 
ish the earth," would never be fulfilled. 

Sexual love is no more condemnable because it 
is abused, than the love of money, and our mental 
and physical powers, and our appetites and other 
passions, which are more or less abused daily. 

Yet, there is no other passion that is so abused, 
and its abuse attended with such mental, moral, 
and physical evil, and awful consequences, as the 
sexual passion. 

And there is nothing else in the world that is so 
destructive to morals and virtue, mind and body, 
to manhood and womanhood, and that so de- 
bauches and degrades men and women, and so 
effectually destroys individuals and nations, as such 
abuse ! 

There is no strength of body or mind, nor any 
virtue and goodness, that can resist the destructive 
influence of its abuse. 

And there is nothing else that so unfits men and 
women for business, and the pleasures and happi- 
ness of life, and its duties, and that so well fits 
them for any and all sins and crimes, and so com- 
pletely wrecks the whole man and woman, as the 
abuse of the sexual passion ! 

Its abuse will change the most amiable, affec- 



62 THE SEXUAL PASSION. 

tionate man or woman into the most hateful, fret- 
ting, peevish, fault-finding, quarrelsome person in 
the world; which accounts for the surprising 
change that comes over many men and women 
after they have been married a few years. 

Its abuse is also one of the greatest causes of 
physical diseases and nervousness, crossness, and 
quarrels between husbands and wives, and is fre- 
quently the cause of breaking up families. 

Could we remove the curtain which hides from 
public gaze the victims of sexual abuse, we should 
be astonished to find so many of the most intelli- 
gent class of people among them, who have the air 
and appearance of respectability, and move in the 
best society, and whose faces are wreathed in 
smiles, while the canker-worm of guilt and disease 
are gnawing out their hearts. 

It well might blanch the ruddiest cheek, and 
freeze the warmest blood, to look upon so sad a 
sight ! 

The victims of sexual abuse are thickly strewn 
all along the highways and by-ways of life, writh- 
ing in all stages of disease and misery ! 

Many of the fairest, most intellectual, and 
learned men and women of all ages of the world, 
who were once the charm of happy homes, and 
stars in the best society, in consequence of expos- 
ure to temptations, have fallen, like angels from 
heaven, to rise no more! It is a lamentable 



THE SEXUAL PASSION. 63 

and startling fact, that there is no society and no 
class of people into which this monster vice has 
not found its way ! It has ruined not only indi- 
viduals and happy homes, but nations. 

The anguish, lamentation, and groans of its 
broken-hearted, bleeding, dying victims, are borne 
upon every breeze that sweeps this fair earth! 
There is no hour of the day or night, that does not 
witness the sacrifice of some human being upon 
its fiery altar ! 

Youth, beauty, and loveliness', talent and genius, 
high position in society, church, or state, are no 
protection against its hell-consuming fires ! Such 
as those seem the special objects of its implacable 
wrath ! 

I would not be understood, by these sweeping 
remarks in regard to the extent of licentiousness, 
that there is no virtue and purity in men and 
women ; for, thank God, there is much ! But there 
is no disguising the fact, that licentiousness, which 
is confined to no classes of people, is fearfully on 
the increase, which should excite the greatest 
alarm in all good men and women, who would 
save our homes and society, and the marriage in- 
stitution, from this dark tidal-wave, and avert the 
burning, scalding wrath of God, which fell on the 
nations of the past, that gave themselves up to 
lust and vice! 

No one who has not been professionally admitted 



64 THE SEXUAL PASSION. 

behind the curtain which covers this vice, or been 
initiated into its ranks, can have any idea of the 
extent and awful consequence of the abuse of the 
sexual passion ! 

It has blasted the fairest prospects and fondest 
hopes of men and women, and threatens the des- 
truction of society, church, and state ! 

There is no man nor woman that can long re- 
main in contact with this vice of so frightful mien, 
that to be hated needs but to be seen, that will not, 
sooner or later, become contaminated with it. 

And no man can long go after bad women, 
whose steps take hold on hell, and not be bank- 
rupt in purse and character. 

And what is most startling, is the fact, that the 
abuse of sexual love in married life, where it is legal- 
ized, has caused more diseases, evil, suffering, vice, 
and crime, as I shall soon show, than its abuse out 
of matrimony ! 

Its abuse in married life, which is no fault of 
wives, not only produces most of the diseases of 
married women with which they suffer so much, 
but, it often causes such a leucorrhcea that a hus- 
band may, and frequently does, contract it of his 
wife, when he will have all the symptoms of gon- 
orrhoea. 

There are many such cases, where an innocent 
wife has been disgraced and divorced on the 
ground that she has been unfaithful, and given her 



THE SEXUAL PASSION, 6S 

husband a private disease, through the ignorance 
of physicians and the legal profession, while the 
husband, who is the cause of the disease and of 
her disgrace, goes unpunished by man, and receives 
the sympathy of all who know of the case, for his 
misfortune in having such a wife. 

Although there is no law of the land to punish 
such a crime, he cannot escape the punishment of 
God. 

Some men compel their wives to submit to their 
embrace, regardless of their pleading to be ex- 
cused on the ground that they have no desire for 
an embrace, or that they are weary from hard work, 
or are sick ; and if the wife will not yield to their 
request, they become angry, turn their back to 
them, and say, "Well, if you worCt, I know some- 
body who will," giving a wife the idea that her 
husband considers her his slave, and a mere tool 
for the gratification of his passion, which makes 
her hate and despise him. 

When a man has become so low and mean as to 
say such to a wife, heis the strongest proof of total 
depravity we can find. Many wives are deprived 
the right brutes enjoy, the right to receive or reject 
the male, which right the male brute respects. Yet 
men have the legal right to compel them to submit 
to their embraces against their desire, which is not 
only wrong but wicked. 

I believe in woman's God-given rights, the first 



66 THE SEXUAL PASSION. 

of which is her right to her person, and to have 
her feelings, love, and passion respected. And if 
she cannot have this right without law, she should 
have it secured to her by law. Justice and human- 
ity require that wives should be protected against 
the sexual abuse of their husbands. Men should 
be punished for raping their wives as well as other 
women. 

The right of a woman to decide when and how 
often she shall indulge her sexual love, is a God- 
given right which marrying does not take from her, 
and which should be respected by her husband and 
the laws of the land. 

Often the abuse of sexual love in married life is 
the sole cause of the diseases and poor health 
of wives, their nervousness, fretfulness, and the 
trouble between them and their husbands, and the 
cause of the separation of those who by nature 
are adapted to each other, and who truly love each 
other ; for its abuse as much repels men and women 
in married as in single life. 

In fact, there can be no love, nor even respect, 
and no happiness in marriage where this passion is 
abused. 

But there are greater and more serious evils than 
I have mentioned that are the result of sexual abuse, 
which is, many children are born into the world 
libertines and prostitutes, whom no law nor preach- 
ing can save from a life of shame ! 



THE SEXUAL PASSION. 6/ 

This is an awful crime, for which God will surely 
hold parents responsible.. 

Children not only look like their parents, but, 
having the same appetites and passions as their 
parents, they will have the same characters, and 
act like them. 

Hence the children of a thief will steal, and the 
children of the drunkard will drink liquors and be- 
come drunkards, and the children of a prostitute 
will be licentious. 

We have no moral right, although we have a 
legal right, to thus poison the streams of life 
through hereditary descent, and damn our chil- 
dren before they are born, whereby we, in a meas- 
ure, defeat the object of their creation. 

Of such children it is said in the Bible, " They 
are conceived in iniquity and born in sin ; " and, 
"It were better that a millstone was about their 
necks and they were sunk irf the deep, than that 
they were born." 

O ! what a sin and crime it is against children, 
mankind, society, and God, to bring children into 
the world under such circumstances ! Well may 
those guilty of this great crime tremble in view of 
judgment with God, who cannot, and will not, 
suffer it to go unpunished ! 

Will not such children rise up in judgment 
against their parents ? 

There can be no doubt but that a large propor- 



68 THE SEXUAL PASSION. 

tion of the vices and crimes of men and women 
are the legitimate fruit and consequence of the 
abuse of the sexual passion in married life. This 
is the principal cause — although unnoticed by 
those trying to suppress vice — of licentious men 
and women, who, when sunken to a certain degree 
in licentiousness, are prepared to commit any and 
all crimes, — murder not excepted. 

Such children, when they become men and 
women, become the wolves and tigers of mankind, 
whom we may chain up and cast into prison, but 
whom no law nor preaching can reform. 

What then is the use to preach against vice and 
crimes, and pray God to help us suppress them, so 
long as there are so many houses in the land that 
are sending out into the world such children to 
prey upon society ! To me, such prayers without 
works seem an insult to God, if not blasphemous. 

It don't matter that the abuse of the sexual pas- 
sion is through ignorance; the effect is the same as 
if those abusing it knew its evil consequence, for 
such ignorance is no excuse with God ; since all 
might, and should, know these things. 

The above facts make the bringing children 
into the world a fearful responsibility ; for God 
will hold us responsible for their characters, and 
the consequence of them, since these are decided 
in their mother's womb, by what the mental, 
moral, and physical condition of their parents are 
when the child is begotten. 



THE SEXUAL PASSION, 69 

Knowing the evil consequence of sexual abuse 
in married life, when I learn of the fall of a young 
man or woman from the heaven of virtue to the 
hell of licentiousness, before I denounce them, I 
ask, Who is the greater sinner, they or their parents f 

Who is the most responsible to God, they who 
only act according to their nature, or their parents 
who transmitted to, and stamped upon^ them their 
own natures, app*etites, and passions ? 

I have no doubt but that the abuse of the 
sexual passion is the principal cause of heart dis- 
eases, which are fearfully on the increase, and the 
increase of these diseases is in proportion to the 
increase of licentiousness. 

Another great evil of sexual abuse and promis- 
cuous sexual indulgence, is the contraction of the 
most loathsome diseases which flesh is heir to, of 
which I speak in another place in this pamphlet. 
Suffice it to say here, that these horrible diseases 
which eat up men and women before they die, are 
transmitted to children, w T hom they destroy sooner 
or later. 

I have known many beautiful and most promising 
young men and women, from eighteen to twenty, to 
be destroyed with these diseases, which they in- 
herited from their father. Can there be a greater 
crime than this against God and children ? And 
can such a crime go unpunished by God, although 
there are no laws of the land to punish it ? 



70 THE SEXUAL PASSION. 

Nothing is clearer than that the abuse of the 
sexual passion must be stopped, or it will destroy 
all that is beautiful and lovely in men and women, 
and all that is desirable in life, — our homes, 
society, church, and state, and eventually depopu- 
late the earth. 

Believing that the principal cause of the abuse 
of this noble passion is the universal ignorance of 
the people in regard to its nature, and the evil 
consequences of its abuse, and wishing to do 
what I can to suppress its abuse, and to stay 
the dark tidal-wave of its evils, which is sweeping 
over our land and the world, destroying many of 
the fairest women and most intelligent men in 
society, I send forth this pamphlet, hoping and be- 
lieving that it will be the means of snatching, as 
brands from the burning, many of the victims of 
sexual abuse, and save thousands from its evil 
consequences. 

I am satisfied that the true way to stop the 
abuse of sexual love, is, not by trying to undo 
God's work by changing man's nature, which we 
cannot do, but by teaching the people its nature 
and the evil consequence of its abuse, man's duty 
to himself, his fellow-man, and to his God ; the 
fulfilment of which alone can secure the end and 
aim of life-happiness. 

When we teach men how to gratify and control 
their passions, and the evil consequence of their 



THE SEXUAL PASSION. 7 1 

abuse, they will listen to us, and profit by our in- 
struction, while they will not listen to our denunci- 
ation of sexual love, and its gratification ; for this 
passion has more influence over men and women 
for good or evil, than any other passion, or any 
appetite. 

Knowledge and goodness are the only protection 
against vice and crime, and yet, these are not al- 
ways a protection. 

It seems to me that if we spent more time in the 
study of man, as a physical, intellectual, and re- 
ligious being, his nature and mission in life, and 
God's plan of creation, we should be wiser, bet- 
ter, and happier than now, and should find less 
cause for fault-finding that God made the world 
and man as he has. 

We should then understand that God made the 
passions to be indulged and enjoyed in accordance 
with the laws of man's being, which he made, 
when they produce no sin nor evil ; and we should 
also learn, that man's passion must and will be 
gratified in spite of laws and preachings, in ac- 
cordance with, or in violation of, the laws of God 
and man, according to a man's education, and the 
circumstances and influences with which he is sur- 
rounded. 

It is necessary that the sexual passion, as well as 
all others, should be under the control of our 
reason and religious faculties, when they can do no 
harm. 



^2 THE SIN AND CRIME OF ABORTIONS. 



THE SIN AND CRIME OF ABORTIONS. 

The most general and alarming sin and crime 
of the age, and which the good of society, morals 
and religion call loudest for suppression, is the 
destroying of infants before they are born. 

While criminal abortions are not confined to 
any class of people, they are more frequent among 
the better classes than the common, as the number 
of children born to each class clearly shows. In 
spite of laws and preaching, abortions are fearfully 
on the increase, and threaten to depopulate the 
earth, especially of the better classes of peo- 
ple, while they destroy the health and constitutions 
of tens of thousands of women annually, and causes 
the death of thousands ; which should excite the 
greatest alarm among those who lead in society, 
and are considered the guardians of virtue, morals, 
and religion. 

There can be no doubt but that more children 
are destroyed annually in their mother's womb 
than are born alive. And yet, notwithstanding 
it is a crime, and punishable by the laws of the 
land, and is murder in the sight of man and God, 
who says, " Thou shalt not kill" most people 
honestly believe that the destruction of an unborn 



THE SIX AXD CRIME OF ABORTIOXS. J ^ 

foetus, especially in the early stages cf gestation, 
is no sin, and much less a crime ; and hence they 
destroy them without the least compunction of 
conscience. 

But we can assure all such that no matter how 
soon it is done after conception, it is murder, for 
which God, if not man, will hold them responsible 
while the spirits of these murdered infants will 
rise up in judgment against the parents and others, 
who have destroyed them before their time. 

So unfashionable is it among certain classes of 
women to have children, and so unpopular have 
they become, that they are not only destroyed 
before, but after they are born. In many large 
cities there are places where, under the pretence 
of putting infants out to nurse, they are killed for 
a stipulated price. 

In China it is the general custom for parents to 
kill openly their female children so soon as they 
are born, — against which there is no law nor con- 
science among that people. And the way child- 
killing is increasing among us, it will not be long 
before public sentiment will approve the killing 
of children here as there. 

This seems as incredible as it is horrible, but 
nevertheless it is true. 

In olden times it was the pride of men and 
women to have many children ; but it is not fash- 
ionable now. 



74 THE SW AND CRIME OF ABORTIONS, 

There are cases where the bearing of children 
endangers the health and lives of women, in which 
cases it is not only legale but a professional duty 
to produce abortion. And there are men and 
women who believe it a duty to commit abor- 
tion, and that it should be legal, in cases of the 
seduction of respectable young women by men 
stealing their love, securing their confidence, and 
the promise of marriage. In such cases the bear- 
ing of a child ruins their character, destroys their 
usefulness, brings great sorrow and distress on 
themselves, their families and friends, excludes 
them forever from respectable society, and sends 
them down to the haunts of vice and crime, which 
are the gates of hell. Those who contend for the 
justice of abortions in such cases consider charac- 
ter more sacred than the life of an unborn child, 
or even of the life of the mother. 

But a better way to deal with such cases would 
be to have private lying-in hospitals, where, ex- 
cluded from the world, they could have a home, 
care, and sympathy, go through their time, save 
their reputation, and the life of their child, and go 
back to society as pure in motive as before they were 
seduced ; when they would make good, true wives 
and Christian mothers, instead of sinking into the 
maelstrom of licentiousness. One thing is certain, 
that this class of women are more entitled to our 
assistance, charity, and sympathy, — since it is 



THE SIN- AND CRIME OF ABORTIONS. 75 

Christian charity to believe that they sinned more 
from weakness and inability, than from design, — 
than those who get into trouble from a desire to 
gratify their sexual passion, since their motives 
were pure, while their acts were wrong. But, al- 
though we should judge them, as God does, by 
their motives, which alone give moral character to 
all acts, still, this does not make it right nor justify 
their acts. 

No doubt but that such a provision for this class 
of women would do more for fallen women, or better, 
to prevent them from falling, and closing up houses 
of ill-fame, where such unfortunate women congre- 
gate, than all the church and state are now doing. 

The reason why abortions are practised in mar- 
ried life, is, many women are unhappily married, 
and revolt at the idea of having a child by a man 
they do not love, and because many parents do not 
want so many children. This may be a good ex- 
cuse why the poor, who are unable to provide for 
them and properly educate them, should not have 
many children ; but this excuse does not apply to 
the wealthy and well-to-do in the world, and is 
therefore no excuse either to man or God, why 
children should be murdered before or after they 
are born. The sin and crime in the sight of God 
are the same. There can be no doubt but that it is 
wrong, if not a crime in the sight of God, and pro- 
ductive of much sin, evil, and crime, to bring more 



76 THE SIN AND CRIME OF ABORTIONS. 

children into the world than we can provide for 
and properly educate, or to bring them into the 
world under circumstances which make them a 
curse to themselves, to society, and those who bore 
them. For it is better, as the Scriptures teach, 
that " a millstone was about the neck of such chil- 
dren, and they were sunk in the deep, than that 
they were born." 

But the remedy for such evils is not murder, nor 
quack " female regulating pills," which seldom or 
never produce the result they are recommended 
to, while they destroy the health, constitution, and 
lives of women. But, the remedy is the prevention 
of conception, which can be done without violating 
a moral or physical law. If it is wrong and wicked 
to bring children into the world under circum- 
stances which defeat the object of their creation, 
and make them the wolves and tigers of mankind, 
and in some instances fiends in human form, then 
we can better serve humanity and Christianity by 
preventing conception under such circumstances, 
which can be done without injury to health, or in 
the least interfering with sexual enjoyment. 

The necessity of so doing, reason and the Scrip- 
tures teach, and conscience approves, in that it 
would prevent the horrible wholesale murder, an- 
nually, of thousands of unborn infants, and save 
the health and lives of thousands of women, in- 
cluding the seducer's victims ; and do more for 



THE SIN AND CRIME OF ABORTIONS, *JJ 

morals and religion, and society, church, and state, 
than all the legal and moral powers in the world ; 
since it would prevent the birth of children whom 
circumstances doom to be wicked men and women, 
who will prey upon society, burn cities, rob and 
murder, and at last swing on the gallows, or fill 
our jails and state-prisons with felons. 

We have no more moral right to bring children 
into the world under such circumstances, which 
destroy them morally and physically, through he- 
reditary descent before they are born, than we 
have to poison them with arsenic, belladonna, and 
strychnine, after they are born. Some people are 
opposed to having children, because they don't 
want the care and trouble of them ; while others 
have a dislike of children under any and all cir- 
cumstances, which is a good reason why they 
ought not to have children, whom they will never 
treat humanely. 

And the idea that conception can be prevented 
by husbands and wives abstaining from sexual in- 
dulgence, or by the use of strong alum water injec- 
tions into the vagina, which soon destroys the 
lining membrane, when all pleasure of sexual 
indulgence, to both husband and wife, is de- 
stroyed, is absurd. Neither is the free injection 
of cold water into the vagina, which many women 
use, a reliable prevention, while it often causes in- 
flammation of the vagina and womb, which fre- 



J 8 THE SIN AND CRIME OF ABORTIONS, 

quently results in death. The idea that God 
intended that -women should bear a child every 
year, as the ancients believed, from the age of 
fourteen years until they are forty-five or fifty years 
old i or, that husbands and wives will not indulge 
their sexual passions, in accordance with their 
nature and inclination, let the consequence be what 
it may, since the sexual passion now has a greater 
influence over men and women than preaching, 
laws, prisons, and revolvers, is as unreasonable as 
it is absurd and ridiculous ; and hence, the less we 
advocate such doctrines, the wiser and more con- 
sistent we shall appear, for the demands of nature 
are stronger than laws and preaching. Our only 
hope and chance of suppressing this great crime is 
in the united action against it of physicians, minis- 
ters, the press, and all good, true men and women. 
The following is evidence that the people are wak- 
ing up to the sin and crime of abortion. It comes 
from the right source, and has the true ring to it. 

"The Rev. Dr. Hatfield, of St. Paul's Methodist 
Church, in Cincinnati, created a sensation in the 
meeting of the Evangelical Ministerial Association 
in that city, by the boldness with which he called 
the attention of his brother clergymen to the appal- 
ling prevalence of criminal abortion by respectable 
American women. He affirmed that there was not 
a block in Cincinnati that did not contain women 
thus guilty, and who thought it nothing. He called 



THE SIN AND CRIME OF ABORTIONS. 79 

upon the ministers present to regard the evil, and 
confer together as ministers of God, as members 
of society, and as parents, for the best means to 
check the evil, and save American society and 
American life from destruction. Dr. Hatfield cited 
the Roman Catholic Church as setting an example 
of watchfulness over its people in this respect, so 
much so that he, as a Protestant minister, stood 
abashed and silent before the Catholics, he said. 
And even German infidels were raising more chil- 
dren in this country than any other people in it ; 
and if something was not done to prevent destruc- 
tion of fcetal life among the American people, 
the government of the country would eventually 
pass into the hands of foreigners." 



80 SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN, 



SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN. 

One of the most startling vices of the age, and 
one which should excite the greatest alarm, is the 
practice of self-abuse among women, — especially 
young women and girls. And yet there are but 
few women of forty and fifty years of age, who ever 
heard of this vice ; showing the practice is of a 
recent date in this country ; and many women 
will feel indignant at this announcement. Never- 
theless, it is true, as facts and the experience of 
physicians show. And it is more than possible 
that the fair daughters of those whose modesty is 
so shocked, and who are so indignant at the state- 
ment of the existence of such a vice, which is 
fearfully on the increase, are the victims of it, 
which is slowly undermining their health and 
hurrying them to an untimely grave, for this vice 
is by no means confined to the lower classes of 
women. 

The symptoms of this vice, which is the w r orst 
that women can be guilty of, are, a pale, sallow 
complexion, dark circles under the eyes, nervous- 
ness, irritability, low spirits and despondency, loss 
of flesh and appetite. 



SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN, 8 1 

It is true some diseases, especially of the gener- 
ative organs of women, may produce most of these 
symptoms ; but the - experienced physician can 
readily tell if this vice is the cause of these symp- 
toms. 

It would be safe for all the mothers whose 
daughters have the above symptoms, to suspect 
and question them upon the matter; especially 
should mothers do so if their daughters are sickly 
and have doctored much without benefit. 

It is never pleasant to speak or write on the 
vices and crimes of mankind, and especially of 
women, — the mothers, daughters, and sisters of 
somebody ; but although painful, it is often a relig- 
ious duty, since it is the only way by which they 
can be saved. 

It is painful for me to think, much more to 
know, that many young women are addicted to 
this vice of vices, and it is more painful to speak 
and write about it. But I feel it is a duty I owe 
men and women, and my God ; and that woe will 
be to me if, knowing these things, I remain silent ! 
I feel it is my duty, as it is every man and 
woman's, especially of those who are Christians, 
to do all I can to suppress this health, mind, soul, 
and body-destroying vice, which is more destruc- 
tive to morals and virtue than common whoredom, 
and one of the greatest obstacles in the way of 
the advancement of Christianity in the world. 



82 SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN, 

And this can only be done by teaching women 
and girls that it is a great sin and heinous vice, 
for which God will surely punish them. And that 
it destroys their peace and happiness, unfits them 
for the pleasures and duties of life, and for wives 
and mothers. 

This vice, sooner or later, diseases the whole 
system, causing indigestion and nervous diseases, 
and diseases of the liver, lungs and bowels, con- 
stipation, spinal diseases, impurities of the blood, 
eruptions on the face, and other diseases ; weak 
and painful eyes, dark specks before them, and is 
one of the principal causes of diseases of the 
heart, with which so many die daily, and diseases 
of the brain, and nervous headaches, loss of 
memory, dread of society and love of solitude, 
epilepsy, paralysis, debility, despondency, inertia, 
insanity, idiotism, and suicide. Often there is a 
weight and distress in the stomach, congestion in 
the head, causing a bad feeling in it, and drowsi- 
ness, inability to think, irregular pulse, and wind, 
or gas in the stomach and bowels, constipation 
and diarrhoea by spells ; yet, those having these 
symptoms never think the cause of these troubles 
is the effect of self -abuse. 

Ilts victims lose flesh, although they eat heartily, 
because the stomach is unable to digest what is 
eaten; they become sensitive to the cold, their 
complexion becomes sallow, with blue circles un- 
der the eyes, and their voice is weak and whining. 



SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN. 83 

Self-abuse is also a cause of consumption, and 
leucorrhcea, with burning and itching in the va- 
gina. The victims of this practice have chills and 
hot flashes, and more or less suffocating feelings 
by spells, and palpitation of the heart on exercis- 
ing quickly, especially on running up-stairs, which 
is evidence that the heart is affected, while their 
sleep is distracted by fearful dreams and severe 
beating of the heart, by spells, which are increased 
during the day by violent exercise and excitement ; 
and there is generally more or less confusion of 
the mind, and a sense of heaviness in the head, 
and sometimes a buzzing in the ears. 

Virtue and modesty are the basis of all womanly 
character, the source of all true happiness, and are 
most desired, and more admired in the character 
of women by all good men than anything else. A 
woman with these, regardless of her form and fea- 
tures, is far more beautiful and lovely, than a 
woman with the most beautiful form and features, 
robed in the most costly silks and satins, bespan- 
gled with the most costly gems and precious stones 
that ever adorned woman. And yet how little are 
these prized by many women who most desire to 
shine and be admired, and how cheaply, often, 
these are sold. 

Young women should constantly be impressed 
with the idea that virtue and purity are far more 
precious, and more to be desired than glittering 
gems and sparkling diamonds, and without virtue 



84 SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN. 

and modesty they cannot respect themselves, nor 
be loved and respected by anybody else. 

It is lamentable, and should excite the greatest 
alarm, that virtue and modesty are so lightly esti- 
mated at the present day, even among the. better 
class of people. And yet woman's virtue and 
purity is the foundation of our homes, society, 
church, and state, and hence they must be pro- 
tected at all hazard, and all cost of money and 
blood. Let the stars and stripes trail in the dust, 
and be torn and trampled beneath the feet of reb- 
els if they must, and our schools, colleges, and 
churches, be closed, and even the temple of Lib- 
erty crumble into dust ; but spare, O God ! spare 
the virtue and honor of woman ! 

Some men like to flirt with pretty women with 
easy virtue, but they never want them for wives. 

The practice of self-abuse often results in nymph- 
omia, insanity, and suicide, and is the cause of 
the greatest misery. Its effects on body, mind, and 
soul are worse than common whoredom, and sinks 
women lower in depravity than that does. 

And because it can be practised more secretly 
than whoredom, it is not only much more prac- 
tised than that, but by young women who would 
be shocked at the thought of licentiousness. 

If this practice was confined to the lower, or 
even common class of women, there would be 
less cause for alarm ; but facts leave us no such 



SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN, 85 

consolation, for we know it is practised as much, if 
not more, by young women of our best families, 
who are the leaders and stars in society. Of course 
a large majority of young women neither practise 
this vice or have any knowledge of it. 

Sooner or later the practice produces leucorrhoea, 
and may be the cause of most of the diseases of 
the generative organs of young women ; yet they 
may have diseases of these organs without prac- 
tising this vice. 

That I am not alone in my knowledge of this 
practice among women, is seen by the following : — 

Dr. Fowler, of New York, writes thus of this 
practice : " That women, young, and apparently 
modest, are dying of consumption, of female com- 
plaints, of nervous spinal complaints, of general 
debility, and of other ostensible complaints innu- 
merable, and some of insanity, caused solely by 
self-abuse." 

And Mrs. Gore, in her lecture to ladies on 
" Anatomy and Physiology," remarks : " Some years 
since, my mind was awakened to examine this sub- 
ject by the perusal of a medical work, that de- 
scribed the bad effects of this vice — self-abuse — 
when practised by females. This was the first in- 
timation I had that the vice existed among our 
sex ; since that time I have had much evidence that 
it is fearfully common among them. Were this a 
particular vice of the low and vulgar, there might 



86 SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN. 

be more excuse for the apathy and false delicacy 
that pervades the community respecting it \ but it 
invades all ranks ; professed Christians are among 
its victims. Our boarding and day schools are 
sources of intolerable mischief." 

Mrs. Gore is a graduate of a medical college, 
and has an extensive practice and much reputa- 
tion for skill in Boston, Mass., and hence her 
teaching on this subject is valuable. And although 
the victims of this practice are many, but few ever 
consult a physician in regard to it, or attribute 
their poor health to its effect on the system. 

It has long been known that young men were 
addicted to this practice, but we have been slow to 
believe it was practised by young women, whom 
we have thought not only pure, and models of vir- 
tue, but incapable of an impure thought, much less 
of an improper act. 

But facts have dispelled this delusion, and show 
us that human nature is the same the world over, 
and that sex is no guarantee of virtue and good- 
ness, and of freedom from vice and crimes, since 
some of the greatest excesses in vice have been 
committed by women, as have some of the most 
atrocious crimes. 

This practice among women often causes steril- 
ity after marriage, and the loss of all sexual desire, 
but sometimes it causes nymphomania, which also 



SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN, 87 

may be produced by sexual excess with men, and 
by other diseases of the generative organs. 

Nymphomania is characterized by a violent 
sexual desire, and in time women thus afflicted 
lose all sense of shame, expose themselves to oth- 
ers, and utter the vilest and most obscene speeches. 
If neglected, it generally results in insanity, and 
helps fill up our lunatic asylums. Women en- 
dowed with an exquisite nervous sensitiveness, or 
robust women, with a profusion of dark hair, dark 
and lively eyes, expressive and animated features, 
and well-developed sexual organs, hard, round 
bosoms, well-marked hips, tall stature, a large pu- 
dendum, a prominent clitoris, are particularly pre- 
disposed to nymphomania. 

Yet all these attributes may be wanting, and 
still a woman may have this disease. Women who 
have it in its worst stage assail every man who 
comes near them, supplicate and excite them by 
the most shameless requests to gratify their pas- 
sion. And yet every gratification but increases 
their desire for an embrace. If they cannot have 
men, they resort to the most horrible means of 
self-gratification. Any woman having the first 
symptom of this disease should immediately con- 
sult an experienced and honorable physician, since 
her character, mind, happiness, and life depend on 
the disease being cured before it reaches a certain 



88 SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN. 

stage, when it will compel her to say and do what 
will embitter all her after life. 

This is a terrible disease, to cure which requires 
the most experienced physicians and the best 
medical skill. 

It may be, and frequently is, produced by severe 
leucorrhoea. 

I entreat all young women who, through igno- 
rance of the sin and awful consequences of self- 
abuse, have become addicted to it, to stop the 
practice at once and forever. For all you desire 
and hope in life, and your mental and moral per- 
fection, what you are, and the places you would 
occupy in society, and the respect and love of your 
relations and friends, depend on your repentance 
and reform. 

Not only stop the practice yourself, but persuade 
all others who you know are addicted to it, also to 
stop it. If you have practised this vice much, you 
cannot be restored to health of body without med- 
ical aid ; and it is your first duty to do all you can 
to repair the great injury you have done yourself. 
It may be unpleasant for young women addicted to 
self-abuse to consult a physician in regard to the 
matter, and confess the cause of their poor health \ 
but since health, happiness, and life depend on 
doing so, it is their first duty to do so without delay 
or reservation. If you do not, you will drag out a 



SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN. 89 

miserable existence, and die prematurely an awful 
death ! 

Mothers, have you done your duty to your 
daughters ? told them of this terrible vice, and its 
awful consequences, and warned them against it ? 
You should do so, whether they are addicted to it 
or'not, since if they are, it should be stopped ; and 
if they are not, that is the best way to prevent them 
from becoming addicted to such a practice. 

Now don't be indignant, and put on airs at the 
suggestion that it is possible that your daughters 
may already be the victims of this vice of self-abuse, 
and say, my daughters are too pure and good to 
think of so mean a thing ; for many young women, 
who were once as pure and good as your daughters, 
have been led into the practice by their associates, 
through ignorance of its being a vice, and ruinous 
to body and mind. 

There are none so perfect and pure that they 
may not, in time, yield to strong temptation, since 
liquors are not so intoxicating as excited sexual 
passions. 

It is much better to prevent the practice of this 
vice, than to save them after they are addicted to it. 
Besides, they will be stronger to resist temptation 
before than after they have fallen. 

Mothers should closely watch the associates of 
their daughters, both male and female, and allow 



90 SELF-ABUSE AMONG WOMEN. 

them to associate only with those who are known 
to be pure and good. 

Don't trust too much to their virtue, and pure 
motives, nor to their religion and good bringing 
up ; for many of the purest young women have 
fallen by being led into temptation ; but for which, 
they would now be the joy of happy homes, and 
stars in the best society. 

And remember, as many, or more, young women 
have been ruined by bad women as by bad men. 

Don't allow your daughters to associate with 
either men or women, of whose virtue and purity 
there is the least suspicion, and then it will be im- 
possible for them to fall. 



STERILITY. 91 



• STERILITY. 

Although it is unfashionable to have children, 
it is doubtful if there are any married people who 
do not desire to have one or more, some time. 

It is certain that nothing else is more mortifying 
to married people than sterility, notwithstanding 
those who do not have children give as a reason 
that they do not want them. It may do for those 
who have children to say they do not want any 
more, but not for those who never had any, and 
cannot have them. 

Sterility is often the cause of dissatisfaction 
between husband and wife, of severe reflection on 
each other as to the causes of it, of the loss of 
affection, and of inconstancy and infidelity. 

If married people do not have children, there 
must always be a cause for it, which, in most cases, 
can be removed by skilful treatment. While cases 
of sterility of from three to twenty years' standing 
have been cured, and such women have borne sev- 
eral children, yet, there are cases that cannot be 
cured. Whether sterility can, or cannot be cured, 
depends on the cause of it, which can only be 
learned by consulting an experienced physician. 



Q2 STERILITY, 

The causes of sterility are many ; but the prin- 
cipal cause is some disease, or deformity of the 
generative organs of either the husband or wife ; 
more frequently of the wife, who is much more 
subject to diseases of the generative organs than 
man. 

The cause of sterility in man may be some 
deformity of the generative organs, castration for 
disease, or impotency, and the effects of spermator- 
rhoea, the result of self-abuse when young men, 
which destroys the vitality or life of the spermatozoa 
of the semen, and thus rendering it incapable of 
impregnating the ovum, or seed of woman. 

In fact, sterility, impotency, and incapacity of 
man for pure love for woman, are the great evils, 
and punishment of self-abuse among young men, as 
well as the loss of manhood and the ruin of mind 
and body. 

There are other causes of sterility in men which 
it is not proper to mention here ; and that can only 
be considered in the consultation room of a physi- 
cian. 

The causes of sterility in women, are diseases of 
the vagina and womb, which destroys both the 
ovulum and semen, rendering them incapable of 
impregnation. Leucorrhcea of the womb or vagina 
may prevent the contact of the ovulum and semen, 
or be so acrid as to destroy them, either of which 
would cause sterility. 



STERILITY. 93 

And it may be caused by such a diseased con- 
dition of the womb as to destroy the ovulum in 
passing through it, or by a disease of the ovaries 
which prevents the formation of the ovulum. 

In all diseases of women, which cause sterility, 
there is generally more or less irregularity of the 
menses, such as too frequent, or not often enough ; 
too much, or too little ; continuing too long, or not 
long enough. But this is not always the case, 
since many women do not have children whose 
monthly periods are regular. 

Sometimes sterility is caused by the abuse of the 
sexual passion in married life, which generally is 
no fault of wives. Of the serious effects of this 
abuse, I speak in another place in this pamphlet. 
Suffice it to say here, that such abuse often, but 
not always, produces a weakness in, and frequently 
a disease of, the generative organs of both hus- 
band and wife, which results in sterility. 

Another cause of sterility, deformed children 
and foolish ones, is the marrying of blood relation 
— cousins — which never ought to be permitted, 
since it is a wrong against children and society, 
for which the above-named evils is the punishment. 

Sterility is not always the result of marrying 
blood relation, nor are all the children born to 
such, deformed or fools ; but they are never so 
smart as the same parents would have had by a 
companion not related to them. 



94 STERILITY. 

The following statistics confirm the above start- 
ling statements : — 

In Massachusetts, 17 families which married 
cousins, had 95 children, 44 of whom were idiots, 
12 scrofulous, and only 37 in tolerable good health ; 
while in Ohio, where there is a State law prohibit- 
ing the intermarriage of cousins, out of 3,000 
children by such marriages, 2,400 were either in- 
tellectually or physically defective. In one case 
of the marriage of double cousins, nine children — 
all there were — were idiots of a low grade. Of 
873 marriages of first, second, third, and double 
cousins, there were 3,900 children, of whom 2,490, 
over one half, were more or less defective mentally 
and physically ; while of 125 marriages, where no 
relationship existed between the parties, there 
were 837 children, of whom only 18 were defec- 
tive, and 819 perfect. 

In another case of no relationship of the parties, 
in a country village, 31 families had 209 children, 
all perfect. 

There are cases of women having children by a 
first husband and not by a second ; and of men 
having children by a second wife and not by the first, 
of which Napoleon the 1st and Josephine, his wife 
were examples. While they had no children by each 
other, she had children by her first husband, and 
he by his second wife. Such cases, however, are rare. 
There is no doubt, but that seven cases out of ten of 
sterility, can be cured by skilful medical treatment. 



CHRONIC DISEASES, 95 



CHRONIC DISEASES. 

It is a significant fact which should excite the 
greatest alarm, that seven tenths of the deaths 
among mankind are caused by chronic diseases, 
which steal upon us so imperceptibly that they 
excite no fear, and hardly attract any notice until 
death is at the door. Most of the deaths by acute 
diseases are among people who have been dying 
for years with chronic diseases. These diseases 
have slowly but surely destroyed the vitality of the 
system, have eaten off the roots of the tree of 
life, when it is easily blown over by the squall of a 
fever. 

Because chronic diseases do not at once confine 
people to their bed, like a fever, no anxiety is felt 
until we are in the jaws of death. It is no un- 
common thing that those who die of chronic dis- 
eases are about their business until within a few 
weeks or days of their death. These are called 
sudden deaths. But the fact is, as above stated, 
that they have been dying for years. There can 
be no sudden deaths by diseases, as the destruc- 
tion of the system by them is necessarily gradual. 
It is frequently the case that the progress of 
chronic disease is unmarked by any pain or other 
symptoms, save "general debility," or loss of 
strength. But generally, we are warned of death's 



96 



CHRONIC DISEASES. 



approach by some of the following symptoms, 
which cannot excite too much alarm : 

Coated tongue in the morning ; bad taste in the 
mouth ; offensive breath ; a clean red tongue, with 
sore edges sometimes ; acid or sour stomach, 
called heartburn; goneness, or sinking in the 
stomach before meals ; sometimes no appetite, 
and at other times a voracious one ; pain in the 
side, chest and shoulders, with or without, sore- 
ness ; headache ; shortness of breath, or difficulty 
of breathing, especially on going up-stairs, or with 
little exercise ; sore throat at times, and raising a 
grayish, offensive substance the size of a pin's 
head or pea, which are tubercles, indicating the 
first stage of consumption; an inclination to hawk 
or swallow ; hoarseness and cough at times ; spit- 
ting of blood ; rattling in the lungs ; debility and 
nervousness ; low spirits, and loss of memory ; bad 
dreams, and sleeplessness. 

The first touch of the cold, icy, and paralyzing 
hand of disease should startle you from your 
lethargy, and arouse you to a sense of your dan- 
ger, since life and health depend on your having 
your disease treated in season. Still, the sick 
delay the treatment of their case, not realizing that 
delays are dangerous, and procrastination is not 
only the thief of time, but of life. They heed not 
the timely warning of reason and friends, nor their 
pains, which are the sentinels of life, crying, " to 



CHRONIC DISEASES. 97 

arms, to arms, the citadel of life is in danger, the 
enemy of life is approaching. " No person ever 
died of disease, who might not have been cured if 
taken in season and rightly treated. Think of 
this, ye who are trifling with your health and life 
by neglecting to treat your case to-day. Your 
case maybe curable this month, not next, — to- 
day, not to-morrow. 

When chronic diseases have reached a certain 
stage, they change more for the worse in a few 
weeks or months than they have before this time 
for years. They have less ambition, and gradually 
grow weaker, until they sink into the grave, with- 
out any severe sick spell or great suffering. 

When the sick feel as above, they should lose 
no time in putting themselves under medical treat- 
ment. And, if patients are being treated by a 
physician, or have been treated for some time, and 
they are not decidedly better, much more, if they 
are growing worse, and sinking into the grave, it 
is high time that they change their physician be- 
fore it is too late to save them. 

People seldom attend to their diseases until they 
are unable to attend to their business, or are con- 
fined to their house or the bed, when most cases 
of chronic diseases are beyond the reach of medical 
skill. 

Is it not, then, the height of presumption and 
madness to thus trifle with health and life ? What 



9$ CHRONIC DISSESEA. 

moral right have we to delay so important a matter, 
involving such certain and awful consequences ? No 
skill of physicians, no tears, sighs, regrets, nor re- 
pentance, can make up for such neglect of duty ! 
Then, as you desire health, that you may live and 
enjoy life, attend to your case to-day, before- it is 
too late to save you from a premature grave ! 

Remember, that, although you have repeatedly 
tried and failed, still your only hope and chance for 
health and life, is to continue trying until palsied 
by the cold, icy hand of death, which is your 
Christian duty, and a duty, you owe to your family 
and friends. 

It is for the reason that I have made the 
study and treatment of these diseases a specialty 
for over thirty years, that I understand them 
better, and treat them more successfully than phy- 
sicians in general, who give their time and atten- 
tion to family practice, as such physicians can have 
but little, if any experience in treating Chronic 
Diseases. 



NURSING BOTTLE. 



99 



NURSING BOTTLE. 

There are many kinds of nursing bottles in use, 
and yet there are serious obj ections to all of them ; 
while none of them are what the comfort and 
health of children require. 

In using any of the nursing bottles, infants are 
compelled to swallow much air while taking their 
food from them, which causes more or less colic, 
bloating, sickness, vomiting, diarrhoea, and spasms. 

The tubes used in all nursing bottles are always 
filled with air, except when the child is drawing its 
milk through them, and hence the child must draw 
the air in the tube into its stomach before it gets 
any milk, and every time it stops drawing on the 
tube, which is often, the milk runs out of it into 
the bottle, and the tube is again filled with air, 
which it again draws into its stomach. The con- 
sequence is, children using bottles draw much air 
into their stomachs while taking their food with 
the above-named result. 

Another trouble with the nursing bottles now in 
use, is, there is no way for regulating the quantity 
of milk the child draws up at a time ; and hence it 
often draws too much, causing more or less choking, 



TOO NURSING BOTTLE. 

retching, and strangling, compelling it to stop 
drawing, and thereby increasing the quantity of air 
drawn into the stomach, and more or less irritation 
of the bronchial tubes and lungs, which may result 
in a disease of them. In consequence of these 
troubles, and the suffering and injury they cause 
infants, and the necessity of avoiding all these, we 
have invented a Nursing Bottle, which effectually 
remedies all these troubles. 

In using our bottle, the child draws no air into 
its stomach, since all air is excluded from the tube 
by its always being full of milk, while the quantity 
of milk the child draws in at a time, is so regu- 
lated that it cannot draw too much ; and hence 
there is no choking and strangling. We believe 
this bottle will be appreciated and admired by all 
who use it, as it is recommended by all physicians 
who have seen it, and all women who have used it. 



DRV CUPPING. 1 01 



DRY CUPPING. 

The world moves. Change, progression, and 
perfection are seen in everything around us, above 
us, and within us. And in nothing else has there 
been more improvement and important discoveries 
and inventions, for the benefit of mankind, than in 
the healing art, for the relief of suffering, the cure 
of diseases, and saving of life. And physicians 
who adopt the improved methods of treating dis- 
eases, are much more successful than those phy- 
sicians who ignore the idea of improvement in 
their treatment. 

In consequence of a better knowledge of the 
human system, its organs and their functions ; and 
of diseases and medicine ; and of new and valuable 
remedies, and new instruments, and more experi- 
ence, — we can now relieve suffering and cure cases 
of diseases which were incurable only a few years 
ago. 

And the best and most powerful remedial agent, 
rightly used, is dry cupping, for which I have in- 
vented an apparatus that makes it practical ; for the 
want of which, heretofore, it has been impractical, 
and only resorted to by the medical profession 
when medicines failed. 



102 DRV CUPPING, 

As there is nothing unpleasant in the treatment, 
and its beneficial effects are certain and quick, it is 
the favorite of invalids. It is especially adapted 
to the treatment of all Chronic Diseases, such as 
the diseases of women, of the stomach, liver, kid- 
neys, headache, fits, neuralgia, rheumatism, ner- 
vousness, and tumors ; and it ii the only reliable 
treatment for diseases of the lungs, heart, spine, 
and paralysis. 

For a full treatise on its science and therapeu- 
tics, send for " The Invalid's Friend." 



BREAST CUP. 103 



BREAST CUP. 



There are but few, if any, instruments, for the 
want of which women suffer so much, as for a 
reliable breast pump — one that will draw the milk 
from the breast when necessary. 

Perhaps there is nothing else" that causes women 
more suffering than a "broken breast," or than 
from inflammation and gathering of the breast, all 
of which cases could be prevented by a breast 
pump that would draw the milk. The importance 
of a good breast pump, all physicians and all 
women needing one, and every married woman 
may need one sometimes, realize. Feeling it the 
duty of the medical profession to provide a remedy 
to save women from the suffering of a "broken 
breast," we have invented a Breast Cup that will 
draw the milk from the breast, under all circum- 
stances, which prevents all the sufferings of a 
"broken breast." 

It is the only instrument for drawing the milk 
from the breast that is constructed on scientific 
principles, combining, as it does, the suction of 
the child's mouth when nursing, and the pressure 
of its hands on the breast, thus pressing and draw- 
ing the milk from the breast. To be approved 
and appreciated it needs only to be used. 



TO THE SICKI. 

DR. KNAPP, OF CHICAGO, 

now located in Providence, is treating successfully 

ALL CHRONIC DISEASES, ON A NEW SYSTEM, 

which embraces the best and most approved methods in this and 
other countries, for treating diseases, including the use of 

ELECTRICITY, AND PNEUMATIC, OR DRY CUPPING, 
and Inhalation of Atomized Medicines. 

He treats successfully all Neuralgia and Nervous Affections, 
all forms of Scrofula, Fever Sores and Old Ulcers, Dyspepia, Diseases 
of the Liver and Kidneys, Dropsy, Constipation, all Skin Diseases, Pul- 
monary Consumption in its early stages, Paralysis, Epilepsy, Salt 
Kheum, Headache, Heart Diseases, Fever and Ague. 

HE CURES ALL DISEASES OF THE 

Throat and Lungs, and Diseases of the Heart, 

if applied to in their early stages. He cures more cases of 

Curvatures, Weakness, and Diseases of the Spine, 

and all other Deformities, than any other physician in America. He 
treats these diseases on entirely new principles, and with a new appar- 
atus. He has had an extensive practice and wonderful success in the 
treatment of CANCERS, which he cures without Cutting them out. 
He cures all 

DISEASES OF THE EXE AiSTD EAR, 
which he treats on a NEW SYSTEM, including CUPPING. He has 
had an extensive practice, and great success in the treatment of all 

DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

He has cured women who have been confined to their beds for years. 
He has lectured much to Ladies on these Diseases, which gives him a 
knowledge and experience in the treatment of them, unsurpassed by 
any other physician. He never fails to cure 

RHEUMATISM, 

in all its stages. 

c a.t^lr,:r k . 

He is treating Catarrh on a NEW SYSTEM, which is a sure cure for 
this terrible disease, with which almost every person -is more or less 
afflicted. 

CONSULTATIONS AND EXAMINATIONS FREE. 

His consultations for years have averaged several thousands a year, 
which gives him an experience unsurpassed by any other physician, 
and equalled only by a few. 

{jp^He does not promise to cure all stages of disease, and no case 
will be received where there is any doubt of cure or relief. 

B3^" Dr Knapp, having been burnt out in the great Chicago fire, has 
located in Providence, E. I. 

g#~ All letters inclosing a letter stamp, addressed to Horace 
Knapp, M. D. t Providence, R. I., will be promptly answered. 



Office, 179 Broad St. , cor. Mathewson St., Providence, R. I. 

Office Hours from 9 A.M. to 1 P. M., and from 2 to 8 P. M. 




& 



WOMAN'S 




Coi|fidei\tikl Adviser 



ON THE 



HEALTH AND DISEASES OF WOMEN. 



Know Thyself! 



ON WHICH 



Health, Happiness, and Life Depend ! 



HORACE KNAPP, M. D. 




PROVIDENCE, R.I. 

1873. 






IR/IE-A^ID 



mnd to ffanr Neighbor. t 



This pamphlet treats on one of the most important 
matters to Ladies, " Health and Life/' and the 
"Diseases of Women," for the want of knowledge of 
which, most women are Invalids, and are dying pre- 
maturely after having suffered much for months or 
years, from diseases. Hence it is as important to 
women as are health, happiness, and life. 

Its object is to do good, to teach women a knowl- 
edge of themselves, their diseases, and of the laws of 
health and life ; to prevent sickness, and relieve human 
suffering, and to make womankind wiser, better, and 
happier. It is a plea for virtue and goodness, and a 
warning against the violation of God's laws and its 
fearful consequence. 

When you have read it, give it to your friend, and 
thus do good to others. 

PRICE S5 CENTS. 



Invalids should send for " The Invalid's Friend," 
which describes their Symptoms and Diseases. 



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